International Champions Cup women’s tournament expands to eight teams as 2019 schedule comes together
While I like the idea of having the same number of international and NWSL sides, (considering that international sides simply won't have the same pull as the brother clubs do,) I think a transitional year like 2019 might do better with a 5+3 setup. I wonder if NWSL sides (or the NWSLPA) might not like the idea of playing in the offseason when players have other jobs/are overseas, which would make getting 4 sides to participate harder, plus I think 5+3 is a good transition level between 3+1 and 8+8.
How exactly are you going to get four NWSL teams to practice and then play in the off-season? Isn't that the (tentative?) plan?
I don't know about the details of NWSL contracts, but I don't think players are required to report to club activities during the offseason. So it'd likely be on a volunteer basis... IIRC, way back in the WPS days, Sky Blue (of all clubs) went to an offseason tournament in Turkey I think (as the 2009 champions) with most of their squad, but also guest players from other WPS teams. NWSL teams, especially those who send many players overseas for the offseason, might do something similar. It also depends just how far into the offseason this is. The NWSL championship will be in October; if the tournament is in November, that's only a few extra weeks for NWSL squads to keep their players, especially if ICC decides the four NWSL teams participating should be the four playoff teams. =EDIT= Also, between my previous post and the time of writing this reply, the article itself seems to have been updated: ....so ignored everything written above since it's apparently moot! Though, arguably, this makes the timing even worse since every single team potentially involved will be missing most of their staring lineups...
It was 2012, I think, when Sky Blue had an off-season tour in Japan: they played a double-header vs INAC Kobe Leonessa and this later led to Beverly Gobel-Yanez signing for the Japanese and club and playing in Nadeshiko League for two seasons.
This story has been updated. After originally telling the Inquirer that the women’s tournament was moving to the winter, Relevent Sports said Friday evening that it is staying in the summer. Yeah...it sounded a little...far-fetched before, for European clubs to play this tourney in the middle of their own league season.
Most European leagues has break during the WWC. So shouldn't be a problem getting some that want to get match time for the players that aren't in the WWC. But that would on the other hand mean very depleted European teams.
Just to update: we should know more about this summer's tournament by the end of this week The International Champions Cup isn’t the only silverware on the table this summer. Stay tuned to our and @IntChampionsCup’s channels on 3/29 for a special tournament announcement!#ICC2019 pic.twitter.com/Wnl1ScGMkB— Women's International Champions Cup (@iccwomen) March 20, 2019
Official announcement: https://www.internationalchampionscup.com/articles/womens-international-champions-cup-2019 Unfortunately, it looks like the fact that it's a WWC year means that the planned expansion of the tournament did not pan out, as we're still at four teams and four matches: NC Courage, Lyon, Atletico Madrid, and Man City. Fortunately, there *is* prize money this year, and an ESPN broadcast, plus the Courage will be hosting it which probably means higher attendances.
Eh, ICC has never tried to "reflect" anything. Besides, I'm honestly surprised we have as much representation as we do. When it sounded like it would be 8 (4 NWSL and 4 Euro) I was expecting two ENG teams and the two FRA teams, for a grand total of three countries represented in eight teams. The fact that we have four countries in four teams is rather impressive - incredibly impressive, actually, I would say. As is the fact that they're actually all defending champions of at least one competition: NCC - NWSL Shield, NWSL Playoffs, ICC Lyon - D1F, UWCL Madrid - Primera Division MCFC - WSL Cup
Nugget from the NWSL announcements of this year's tournament: http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/arti...-again-sahlens-stadium-to-host-the-tournament http://www.nwslsoccer.com/news/article/courage-icc-women-in-cary
Just wanted to bump this thread since we're a week out from the matches, and so people can find the thread and not start another.
May I be the first to point out that not all of the teams are champions #originalobservation Well, Man City's cup double is good enough. But usually the WSL Cup winners only qualify for the International Winners-Of-The-Cup-Nobody-Wants-To-Win Cup.
I subscribed to espn + for $4.99 a month, cancel any time, to watch these games. Everything I have read indicates that OL fully intends to win this cup e.g. “The Season starts TODAY!” I hope that ALL the players stay loose and the games flow. Bus parking outside the stadium only.
Lyon has been the better team in this first half, but Atletico Madrid is playing much better against them than Man City did last year.
heres the full game between Lyon & AM. Enjoy it while it lasts(before it's taken down) as apparently the official station, ESPN decided to go pay to watch
BTW, here are a few really fun tidbits on the planning and finances behind the tournament: https://equalizersoccer.com/2019/08/13/as-womens-icc-returns-organizers-eye-bigger-event/
How? Last year it had about four spectators That's great that they're getting so much money for the tournament, but I do wonder what some of these sponsors are on. Well, precisely. Match report on NC Courage v Man City - https://www.nccourage.com/news_article/show/1042127 (Archived) 1162217214088380418 is not a valid tweet id
here's the Courage/Man Vity match, remember time is the essence as this was posted as well by our beloved but banned, Movement_Entertainment(the Wolfman Jack of woso!)
Well, Budweiser just signed on for NWSL as well, so maybe they're just trying to get into WoSo anticipating a nice bump in the future - which would make sense if the ICC does in fact start expanding soon. Nike is just Nike. Ally Financial and Herbalife were already supporing the men's tournament, so I bet they probably said something like "we'll agree to pay 5% more (maybe 10%) to add the WoSo tournament into the deal" or something like that. Because, honestly, that $100k in prize money is nothing compared to the cash thrown around for the men's tournament. I bet it was very little skin off the back for those two sponsors to contribute to that pot.