Women's League in Italy

Discussion in 'Women's International' started by bzygo, Aug 23, 2008.

  1. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Difficult to say: Juventus basically secured most of the best Italian talents (in the latest National Team calls, there were about 10 Juventus' players and 7 Roma's players, but most of the highest profile starter ones were from Juventus) and also have an excellent academy, with their team topping their group's rankings of the Primavera youth tournament and many players being loaned around to other Serie A teams or forming the core of the U-19 National Team (Elisa Pfattner, Chiara Beccari, Nicole Arcangeli...). Not that other teams don't have excellent youth teams, but Juventus seems to be some step ahead in that department also, and this seems to set up for an even longer dominance on the domestic scene... I guess it's similar to some dominating teams abroad: OL was not only raiding the local and international scene for players, but also had in their rankings many girls promoted from their youth team; La Cantera at Barcelona Women works in a similar way, as far as I know...

    Roma could compensate the relative lack of national talents by signing very good internationals and in fact players like Andressa Alves or Emilie Haavi helped them closing the gap a little. But at the moment Italian League isn't good enough, both financially and technically, to attract the very top-players of the women's game: you can't see a Vivianne Miedema or an Ada Hegerberg here.
    Ironically, it's Juventus itself who could help the other Serie A's teams by this point of view, since their Champions' League's run from this season could make Italian League a little more attractive, although of course it can't be up there yet with the 3-4 real top-leagues in Europe.
     
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  2. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1552 blissett, Apr 24, 2022
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2022
    The teams fighting to avoid the relegation faced today two routs and a 0-0 draw leaving a glimmer of hope for one of them.

    Let's start with the match spelling the second verdict of this season, after Hellas Verona's relegation from some weeks ago: Lazio-Juventus ends 1-5 and this means that the club from Roma remains 6 points behind the fourth-to-last place with 2 match-days to go, but even if they'd catch up with Fiorentina, they would be damned by the direct clash favouring the Tuscan team. So Lazio joins today Hellas Verona as the second team relegated to Serie B in this season. They anyway made it interesting in this last portion of the league and even today they had managed to equalize, with young FW Noemi Visentin (she's going to be 22 at the beginning of May and she's at her 6th goal this season), Juventus' initial advantage and to keep the score on a 1-1 draw at HT. Then the bianconere decidingly took over in 2nd Half. :coffee:
    This win, including braces by Arianna Caruso and by Danish MF Sofie Junge Pedersen (on her 30th birthday!), doesn't give the title yet to Juventus, but they get damn close: a draw in the next match vs Sassuolo should seal the deal, since they have the advantage in the direct clash vs Roma. :ninja:

    Milan win at home by 6-2, but Roma keep being 5 points ahead of them, so it looks like the Champions' League's qualification is gone by now: the rossonere will most probably have to settle with a 3rd place in the league. Two braces here also, by captain Valentina Bergamaschi (who got the armband when Valentina Giacinti left to Fiorentina mid-season) and by Martina Piemonte (there are many interesting young FWs competing for a place in the National Team at Euro 2022 and Piemonte is one of them: beyond scoring a lot, she's physical and this feature could help her in the race).
    Pomigliano didn't give up: they scored with young Italian-American talent Tori Dellaperuta in 1st Half and with a middle-range shot by Giusy Moraca in 2nd Half (that apparently caught by surprise the camera-crew also :cautious:). they're lucky that the clubs behind them can't seem to make many points, but there's no doubt that their season will be decided by two direct-clashes in the last two match-days vs their rival to avoid the relegation: Pomigliano-Fiorentina on 8th of May and Napoli-Pomigliano on 15th of May. :coffee:

    The last match of the day was a 0-0 draw between Sassuolo and Napoli. Sassuolo slowly drift towards a final 4th place, since Milan is now 3 points ahead. Napoli, who missed a PK with Soledad Jaimes, anyway manage to make one point that keeps them alive. But they'll need to win vs Empoli next week and/or vs Pomigliano on the final match-day and hope that one between Pomigliano and Fiorentina can't make enough points to remain ahead anyway (Pomigliano-Fiorentina next week grants that at least one of them will lose points).
    Meanwhile, Napoli's draw means that Empoli are safe, since they now have a 7 points advantage over the relegation zone with 2 match-days to go: congratulations to them. :ninja:

    These are today's scores:
    Lazio 1-5 Juventus
    Milan
    6-2 Pomigliano
    Sassuolo
    0-0 Napoli

    And these are the rankings:
    Juventus 53
    Roma 48
    Milan 43
    Sassuolo 40
    Inter 38
    Sampdoria 28
    Empoli 23
    Pomigliano 20
    Fiorentina 18
    Napoli 16
    Lazio 12 (relegated)
    Hellas Verona 4 (relegated)


    Highlights:



     
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  3. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I frankly don't have words to comment the situation in Pomigliano: I'll just give you the news, guys, and everyone will judge. :cautious:

    Pomigliano had started the season with coach Manuela Tesse, who had won the promotion to Serie A. After three match-days, she was sacked and the team was given to Domenico Panico; the team looked initially quite brilliant, then had a crisis in the middle of the season and coach Tesse was called back. Now, after 5 matches, she's sacked again and, after this week-end's break for the semi-finals of Coppa Italia, Panico will be back on the bench for the last two deciding matches vs Fiorentina and Napoli. o_Oo_Oo_O
     
  4. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    Sounds like a panic(o) reaction by Pomigliano.:cautious:
     
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  5. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    This week-end the league is on break because the 2nd legs of the Coppa Italia's semifinals are played.

    Today Roma has beaten Empoli by 2-0 (3-0 on aggregate): the win was quite easy, it was a monologue with no particular opposition by the Tuscan team (who just avoided relegation last week) and the score would have sure been higher if it hadn't been for Empoli's 23 yo GK Alessia Capelletti, who would sure deserve more than just a look from some top clubs.
    The bad news of the day for Roma are that Emilie Haavi was stopped once again by a muscle-injury: she had just come back from a previous one and her other leg was hit right away. :unsure:

    So Roma will play the final on 22th of May in Ferrara, They should be joined by Juventus, who have beaten Milan by 6-1 in the 1st leg, so tomorrow's game should be just a formality.

    These are the highlights from Roma-Empoli:

     
  6. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Sizzling match in Milan today for the second semifinal of Coppa Italia. :ninja:

    After their 1-6 loss in the 1st leg, Milan needed a 5-0 or a 6-1 to drag the game to extra-time. They were 1-0 ahead at HT; in 2nd time, they were up 2-0 at some point and then 3-1 later (with a brace by Valentina Bergamaschi), but they crumbled apart in the end and the final score was 3-5 for Juventus' (with a brace by Andrea Stašková; by the way, there are rumours about the Czech striker leaving on loan for one season, but at Juventus management's place I'd think twice about that deal: Stašková is not yet a starter, but she's incredibly effective compared, for instance, to Lina Hurtig).

    So the final of Coppa Italia on 22nd of May will be Juventus-Roma; Roma are the holders (having won the trophy last year vs Milan), while Juventus are the 4 consecutive times (probably soon 5) winners of the league. You couldn't have imagined a more compelling final-match: we're going to see if Roma, should they fail to steal the title to Juventus in the last two league-matches, will at least manage to beat them in Coppa Italia.

    Meanwhile, enjoy the highlights of this last semifinal game (with Juventus wearing the new odd secondary kit :cautious:):

     
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  7. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1557 blissett, May 7, 2022
    Last edited: May 7, 2022
    First and most important verdicts of this Serie A Femminile have been delivered today: Juventus win their 5th consecutive title and Roma is qualified for Champions' League 2022-2023. For the relegation brawl, instead, tomorrow's games won't most probably be enough and everything will be decided at the last match-day.

    For the match that was going to settle the title-race, Juventus bring out the big guns: their top national players, Barbara Bonansea and Cristiana Girelli have 1 goal and 1 assist each (the third goal was scored by an extraordinary Lisa Boattin, whose power on the wing, both with club and with Italy NT, has sometimes looked unbeatable this season). Sassuolo tried to proudly resist, but today there was no way to stop the bianconere. It's the 5th scudetto in the last 5 seasons, but it somehow feels new, because it's the first one with Joe Montemurro as a coach: he sure gave a clear and personal identity to the team, that's now something different from Rita Guarino's one from the previous 4 years. Now, there is still Coppa Italia's final to conquer and it sure will be an high-level test vs Roma.

    Talking about Rita Guarino, her team is not yet up there with the best ones of the league; sure, they secured 5th place (that's much better, and 13 points higher at the moment, than last season's 8th-place) and they can still battle for 4th place in next week's direct clash vs Sassuolo, but today's derby vs Milan showed all of their current shortcomings. Maurizio Ganz's team was brilliant instead, reversing the score from the 1st round: no Champions' League qualification this season, but a solid 3rd-place and, especially, a well-rebuilt team after the mid-season transfers of Valentina Giacinti and Vero Boquete: some players that were signed in the winter market, as Alia Guagni and Martina Piemonte, were key for the second half of the season, while others, as Valentina Bergamaschi and Lindsey Thomas seemed regenerated: there is sure potential for next season, although Juventus are far ahead and Roma look quite out of reach too, at the moment.

    Finally, Roma celebrated their first ever qualification for the Champions' League by crushing Sampdoria with a 8-0 that made quite a statement. Some players like Annamaria Serturini, Manuela Giugliano, Valeria Pirone were veritable juggernauts today; captain Elisa Bartoli scored the last goal of the match on the day of her 31st birthday: this last two seasons, with the win of the Coppa Italia in 2021 and the Champions' League qualification this year, have been a dream come true for her. A lot of different players scored, showing that what most probably made the difference between Roma and their rivals in this season was the depth of the team, that allowed them to face even long or anyway serious injuries of key-players without lowering much their standards. The five-points difference with Juventus has anyway a reason, but the final of the Coppa Italia remains a very interesting and open game to watch for.

    Today's results:
    Juventus 3-1 Sassuolo
    Inter
    0-3 Milan
    Roma
    8-0 Sampdoria

    Today's highlights:



     
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  8. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Another final verdict today: Fiorentina is safe from relegation. But, as it was basically given unless Napoli had lost today, the third relegated team will be decided next week.

    The first match of the day hadn't anything particular at stake, since it was the clash of the two already relegated teams, but it was quite spectacular (although mostly due to defensive mistakes) and ended with a 4-4 draw, after Hellas Verona had made an unreal comeback from 3-0 to 3-4! :x3: For records, almost one third of the goals Verona scored in the whole tournament so far (13) were scored today. o_O The match included a player, Hungarian 20 yo MF Beatrix Fördös, scoring three goals (her first ones in this season), but not exactly an hat-trick, since one of them was an own goal, while another one was from an indirect Free-Kick in Lazio's box. :alien: Ok, a crazy game for sure: enjoy the highlights at the end of the post.

    Who else could have saved Fiorentina from relegation under a pouring rain in Pomigliano but current top-scorer of Serie A Femminile Daniela Sabatino? And she even hit the post later from PK (one of the umpteen chances Fiorentina had to close the game for good), but luckily for her Pomigliano couldn't manage to equalize anyway. Sabatino will be 37 at the end of June, but it looks like no striker in Italy can score as much as her and it will be difficult for Milena Bertolini to object and to leave her out from Italy's roster at the upcoming Euro 2022 Championship.
    Although it has to be said that maybe there was another another player hoping to be relevant again at National Team level who could claim to have saved Fiorentina today: look at how Katja Schroffenegger saved Marija Banusic's FK that could have re-open the game in 1st Half. :coffee:
    So Fiorentina will play next season's Serie A tournament (the all important first fully-professional women's league in Italy), but today's game was a reflection of the whole season, where the team quite constantly underachieved. We're going to see in the next days if coach Patrizia Panico will be confirmed or not.
    Meanwhile, the (re-)change of coach on Pomigliano's bench didn't give the expected results: now it will be a do-or-die situation next week vs Napoli for Domenico Panico and his team. :ninja:

    Talking about Napoli, they conquered the right to play a virtual "relegation play-off" vs Pomigliano at the last match-day through today's 1-3 away win vs Empoli, who were already safe since last week. The goals and the assists from Napoli's stars, as Soledad Jaimes and Eleonora Goldoni, were missing for long during this season, but today these players did finally deliver, just in time.
    So, next week, the two teams from Napoli (and, conspicuously, the only ones of this Serie A not having a men's team behind them to support their effort) will clash to decide who's going to be relegated: Pomigliano, who are one point ahead, have 2 results available out of 3, but it's actually Napoli who look like they're on a roll right now. Some people wonder if it could be that this match won't just decide which team will remain in Serie A, but also which one is going to get the support of Napoli men's team in the future. :coffee:

    Scores:
    Hellas Verona 4-4 Lazio
    Empoli
    1-3 Napoli
    Pomigliano
    0-1 Fiorentina

    Rankings:
    Juventus 56
    Roma 51
    Milan 46
    Sassuolo 40
    Inter 38
    Sampdoria 28
    Empoli 23
    Fiorentina 21
    Pomigliano 20
    Napoli 19
    Lazio 13 (relegated)
    Hellas Verona 5 (relegated)


    Highlights:



     
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  9. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1559 blissett, May 14, 2022
    Last edited: May 14, 2022
    The last match-day of this season still has three matches to be played tomorrow, but Serie A Femminile's eagerly awaited final verdict has been delivered: Pomigliano win Napoli's derby and remain in 1st Division, while Napoli is relegated to Serie B (there are rumours about some Serie A's team wanting to sell their franchise to a relegated one, but we're going to see in the next weeks how much truth there is in these voices :cautious:).

    Napoli had even gone ahead halfway through 1st Half and had kept the lead until Half Time, despite Pomigliano having had most of the scoring chances until that moment. But in 2nd Half the "panthers" (that's the nickname of Pomigliano's players) reversed the score in 9 minutes, between 61' and 70'. Pomigliano's offense-line was spectacular, with young Argentinian Dalila Ippolito (on loan from Juventus) creating magical assists for her team-mates and Italian-American Tori Dellaperuta scoring the opener for her team and always being a danger to Napoli's goal, but the Women of the Match was hands down Swedish striker Marija Banusic, who assisted Dellaperuta's goal and went on scoring a brace for herself. :notworthy: She thus lifted herself at 7 goals in the league, but most of them had been scored in the first half on the season and she wasn't scoring since the middle of March, to the point that many were crediting to her lack of goals the crisis that had led Pomigliano to have to battle to avoid relegation until the last match-day; now she put her signature over this epic achievement (especially for a newly promoted team at its 1st season in Serie A).
    In the end, it looks like the continual coach-swapping between Manuela Tesse and Domenico Panico on Pomigliano's bench did pay, but I wouldn't advise trying this at home, guys. :cautious::coffee:

    Earlier this afternoon, Roma had won the other derby of this match-day, the one that was much less open and had basically nothing at stake. Roma gave playing time to a lot of second-string players in it, while resting their stars for the upcoming final of Coppa Italia vs Juventus scheduled for next week (on the 22nd of May), but the ones on the pitch were more than enough to dispose of Lazio at their will, to the point that the 1st goal has been scored after just 39" seconds by Milica Mijatović. :x3: Norwegian striker Sophie Román Haug posted one goal and one assist and in the latest games she has looked like she can belong to a team going to face the Champions' League challenge for the first time: maybe not yet as a definite starter, but she looks like quite an effective weapon. Also, Valeria Pirone's lob-goal is sure worth a second look.

    Finally, the last match of the day confirmed that Milan can't hope to actually challenge Juventus yet, since they lost by 1-2 at home to the Champions of Italy. Nothing particular to write home about from this match.

    Scores from today:
    Lazio 0-3 Roma
    Napoli
    1-3 Pomigliano
    Milan
    1-2 Juventus

    Highlights from today:



     
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  10. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    ...and Serie A Femminile 2021-2022 ends today (Coppa Italia's final next week will seal the season and start the countdown to Euro 2022 :ninja:).

    It's obvious that playing with the nightmare of relegation over your shoulder is way different from playing in a very relaxed fashion one week after sweeping away that nightmare: Fiorentina showed that by winning the Tuscan derby vs Empoli by 6-0 (thus taking their revenge for the elimination from the semifinals of Coppa Italia that had been indeed decreed by Empoli on February). Of course, Fiorentina confirmed both that they have a dreamlike offense-line (with two players on the podium and three in the top 10 of Serie A's scorers) and that they have a fragile and undependable defense-line (they conceded a PK today and they once again have to thank Katja Schroffenegger, who, after making an outstanding save last week vs Napoli, also saved Asia Bragonzi's PK today: is she calling coach Milena Bertolini to tempt her to give her a starting place in NT?). Daniela Sabatino, with today's brace, is officially crowned top-scorer of the league with 15 goals and I am pretty sure she will be part of Italy NT at Euro 2022 despite being almost 37; but Valentina Giacinti, now that she's back from her injury, will definitely be a lock-in for the England expedition too: she scored a brace too, as a late sub. and she lifted herself at 10 goals (most of them scored when she was playing with Milan in the first part of the season, though), that are worth a third place level with three other players. There are many ways to explain Fiorentina's lackluster performance from this season; injuries are just a marginal part of that, but I anyway want to underline that today two young players who had been out for long recoveries posted one assist each: 20 yo Martina Zanoli, who suffered an ACL injury in September 2021, had the assist for Giacinti's 1st goal, while 24 yo Danila Zazzera, who mid-2021 was cleared to get back playing 9 months after having cardiac surgery, assisted Giacinti's 2nd goal. Fiorentina's future is in these players' feet. :coffee:

    Mostly useless (since the two teams couldn't modify their positions in the rankings in any way) but quite entertaining game between Sampdoria and Hellas Verona: Verona went ahead first with a comical blunder by Samp's GK Amanda Tampieri, who basically trapped the ball for Alessia Rognoni's easy tap-in. But Genoa's team showed in 2nd Half that their 6th-place in the league wasn't a blunder at all instead: they equalized with Guatemalan "bag of tricks" Ana Lucía Martinez (a message to her NT's coach, who recently cut her from the team for undisclosed reasons?) and then they went ahead with a middle-range scorcher by Slovenian MF Dominika Čonč (Melania Martinovic sealed the deal in additional time and celebrated with a "Brandi Chastain" :coffee:). Applause to Sampdoria's season.

    Finally, Sassuolo-Inter had at least a 4th-place at stake. Both GKs, Belgian Didie Lemey for Sassuolo and very likely Italy NT's GK of the future (and of the present) Francesca Durante, made outstanding saves, but in the end Sassuolo's chances were too many not to make the difference for the neroverdi. After Mana Mihashi's opener, Maltese wunderkind Haley Bugeja completed a spectacular triangle action that she basically started from the midfield-line; Ajara Nchout Njoya's 8th goal of the season was too little too late for Inter. Sassuolo had a bad spell in the last part of the season, that was mostly due to many injuries and not enough depth to make up for them, but they did deserve at least 4th place; Rita Guarino still has quite a lot of work to do to make Inter a real contender, although she sure made a good number of steps in the correct direction.

    Last scores of this Serie A:
    Fiorentina 6-0 Empoli
    Sampdoria
    3-1 Hellas Verona
    Sassuolo
    2-1 Inter

    Final rankings:
    Juventus 59
    Roma 54
    Milan 46
    Sassuolo 43
    Inter 38
    Sampdoria 31
    Fiorentina 24
    Empoli 23
    Pomigliano 23
    Napoli 19 (relegated)
    Lazio 13 (relegated)
    Hellas Verona 5 (relegated)


    Highlights:






    Bonus data: final top-scorers' rankings (top 24 positions = top 20 + 4 = top 18 + 6 players level at 6 goals):

    1- 15 goals - Daniela Sabatino (Fiorentina)
    2- 11 goals - Lana Clelland (SCO)(Sassuolo)
    3- 10 goals - Valentina Giacinti (Milan + Fiorentina)
    ----------------- Paloma Lázaro (ESP)(Roma)
    ----------------- Tatiana Bonetti (Inter)
    ----------------- Lindsey Thomas (FRA)(Milan)
    7 - 8 goals - Karin Lundin (SWE)(Fiorentina)
    ----------------- Arianna Caruso (Juventus)
    ----------------- Ajara Nchout Njoya (CAM)(Inter)
    ----------------- Valeria Pirone (Roma)
    ----------------- Sofia Cantore (Sassuolo)
    12 - 7 goals - Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan)
    ----------------- Asia Bragonzi (Empoli)
    ----------------- Cristiana Girelli (Juventus)
    ----------------- Noemi Visentin (Lazio)
    ----------------- Barbara Bonansea (Juventus)
    ----------------- Kamila Dubcová (CZE)(Sassuolo)
    ----------------- Marija Banusic (SWE)(Pomigliano)
    19 - 6 goals - Ana Lucía Martinez (GUA)(Sampdoria)
    ----------------- Ghoutia Karchouni (FRA)(Inter)
    ----------------- Stefania Tarenzi (Sampdoria)
    ----------------- Lisa Boattin (Juventus)
    ----------------- Valentina Cernoia (Juventus)
    ----------------- Annamaria Serturini (Roma)
     
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  11. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Also of interest: as it was occasionally mentioned in this thread, next year's Serie A Femminile will be some sort of "Superleague" with just 10 teams; this means that one team only will be promoted from Serie B at the end of this season and the fight is thrilling. Brescia was one point ahead until today, but they couldn't go past a draw in Cesena, while Como won vs Cortefranca, thus going ahead by one point instead. There is still one match-day to go, where both teams are expected to easily dispatch two already relegated teams.
    So, Como, after coming back from behind, are now clear favorite to play next year's Serie A, but everything will be decided on next Sunday! :ninja:
     
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  12. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    And Juventus win the last trophy of the season, Coppa Italia, despite the fact that Roma had gone ahead in 1st Half and had basically dominated the game until 80'!

    Matilde Lundorf, who had been rumoured to be leaving the team, had just renewed her contract until 2023 instead a few days ago, but giving a PK to Roma for a foul on Emilie Haavi didn't exactly seem like the best way to celebrate her signing. :unsure: Andressa Alves scored (despite Pauline Peyraud-Magnin diving correctly and maybe slightly touching the ball); later in 1st Half Juventus' keeper had to save a neat chance by Manuela Giugliano.
    But everything went awry for Roma when, at 80', Juventus was given a PK too: Lucia Di Guglielmo was also sent off for DOGSO (questionable? :cautious:) and Cristiana Girelli converted. Three minutes later, from a rebound, a shot by Sara Gama was randomly deflected in Roma's goal.

    Is Juventus superior conditioning making this kind of late comebacks possible? Is it their never-say-die attitude? Is it pure luck against one of the few teams in Italy who look like they're able to challenge them? Anyway, the bianconere end a dominating season with another trophy.

    It can be interesting to note that Agnese Bonfantini, who picked up the foul leading to the PK for Juventus, was playing in Roma last season: so she won two back-to-back Coppa Italia titles with two different teams (Roma had beaten Milan in the final last year). :coffee:

    Highlights:




    Menwhile, by beating by 5-0 another team from the capitol city, Roma Calcio Femminile, Como has pushed away the last assault by Brescia and was officialy promoted to Serie A. In this occasion, they played in the Sinigaglia Stadium in Como, the one normally reserved to the men's team, instead of their pleasant but too little traditional venue in Ponte Lambro (where I had watched them live some years ago :)).

    Now, one could say that the new, at last professional, Serie A league for next season is defined, but it's not so simple. I don't want to write too much about a delicate subject that makes me quite sad, but I have to mention that during last week Empoli, who had avoided relegation with two match-days to go and looked like they were going to play another season in 1st Division, sold their franchise to Parma. :unsure:.Now, I know that in other countries commerce of sport-titles and relocation of franchises are quite normal, but here in Europe the connection between a team and its area is very tight: moving a team from a region (Empoli's Tuscany) to another (Parma's Emilia) is not considered something common and it somehow cuts the ties between the supporters from a local area and women's football: of course, these ties will form again in another place, but it's not so simple since women's football still have just a handful of dedicated supporters, so starting anew is always difficult everywhere.
    It had already happened last season, when Florentia San Gimignano (another Tuscan team) sold their sport-title to Sampdoria, who could thus directly start from Serie A. And there are rumours that Lazio, despite being relegated on the pitch this season, is negotiating the purchase of another sport-title (Pomigliano?) to keep playing in Serie A anyway. This stings even more for people who are used to a promotion-rlegation system, since it looks unfair that a team that lost the right to play a league can buy themselves the right to do so anyway. :unsure:

    I won't go on for much longer, but of course this is all part of a growth-crisis that's changing the face of the women's football, and not necessarily for the good. I get that women are now going to get (at least at the highest level) similar career opportunities as their male counterparts, but at which price? Instead of a slow growth with their own forces, as men's football was allowed in decades, women's football are now subsidized everywhere by men's teams, but the problem is that women's football is not even close to generate financial revenues allowing it to "professionally" substain itself (at least not in Italy), so it basically have to live on the revenues of the men's clubs.
    These means that all of the historical women's clubs, who made the movement grow with just few money and a lot of passion, are basically condemned to be erased from the scene where the men's club are now easily installing themselves. "This is progress, baby?"; well, I am not so sure I like progress, then. :unsure:

    Sorry for the rant.
     
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  13. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I primarily apologize for not updating this thread in the last month, but the end of the league and of senior clubs' activity with Coppa Italia's final matched for me with a peak at work (that's going to end after the first week of July) that didn't leave me much time to post here, so I preferred to privilege Nadeshiko Japan thread and the other threads where I don't have the burden to have to post most of the stuff (all of the stuff? :x3:).

    The fact that very few things actually happened on the Italian scene during this month somehow justified my choice but now the fact that Milena Bertolini has finalized the list of the 23 National Team members for Euro 2022 can be a good excuse to tie some loose ends. :coffee:

    Let's start with the news of today and then go backwards, sounds good? This is the list of the 23 Italian players that left today to Manchester:

    Goalkeepers: Francesca Durante (Inter), Laura Giuliani (Milan), Katja Schroffenegger (Fiorentina);
    Defenders: Elisa Bartoli (AS Roma), Valentina Bergamaschi (Milan), Lisa Boattin (Juventus), Lucia Di Guglielmo (AS Roma), Maria Luisa Filangeri (Sassuolo), Sara Gama (Juventus), Martina Lenzini (Juventus), Elena Linari (AS Roma);
    Midfielders: Arianna Caruso (Juventus), Valentina Cernoia (Juventus), Aurora Galli (Everton), Manuela Giugliano (AS Roma), Martina Rosucci (Juventus), Flaminia Simonetti (Inter);
    Forwards: Barbara Bonansea (Juventus), Agnese Bonfantini (Juventus), Valentina Giacinti (Fiorentina), Cristiana Girelli (Juventus), Martina Piemonte (Milan), Daniela Sabatino (Fiorentina).

    It looks like Bertolini chose to "play it safe" by sticking to the core of the veterans from WWC 2019 (including top-scorer of Serie A Daniela Sabatino, who turned 37 today, but except 34 yo Alia Guagni, who had already being cut earlier despite recovering from her injury and having had an impressive end of the league with Milan). There are of course some interesting youngsters (Maria Luisa Filangeri in defense, Flaminia Simonetti in the midfield, Agnese Bonfantini and Martina Piemonte in the forward-line), but some other very good young players were basically cut in favour of the veterans. Angelica Soffia being cut in defense and Giada Greggi in the midfield raised some eyebrows but the most questionable cut has to be Annamaria Serturini (some of you probably remember her from her miss in the penalty shootout of the Algarve Cup's final): I want to believe that she picked some kind of little injury or that she was anyway physically unfit for some reason, or it's difficult for me to explain how she was left out of the roster. :cautious:

    As I mentioned in another thread, the team is solid but I don't actually see it as a real contender for the title at Euro 2022. I really hope it's me and I am too much pessimistic, but it seems to me that there are at least 4-5 teams at this championship that are vastly superior to Italy in basically every department.

    We're going to see next week and, anyway, go Italy! :ninja:
     
  14. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Meanwhile the Final Phase of 2022 UEFA Women's U-19 Championship will start tomorrow in Czech Republic. Italy will face a very tough opponent in the first match, since Spain-Italy is scheduled for tomorrow at 17:30 CET in Ostrava.

    Coach Enrico Sbardella (who led U-17 Italy NT to a bronze medel at U-17 WWC 2014) tries to lift up the pressure from her girls by painting them as the underdogs in their group (including France and the hosts of Czech Republic), but of course the growth of Italian women's football movement would need a good display at this tournament.

    This is the list of the 20 players:

    Goalkeepers: Beatrice Beretta (Tavagnacco), Astrid Gilardi (Inter);
    Defenders: Elena Battistini (Roma), Sofia Bertucci (Juventus), Marika Massimino (Roma), Angela Passeri (Inter), Alice Pellinghelli (Sassuolo), Chiara Robustellini (Inter);
    Midfielders: Giorgia Arrigoni (Hellas Verona), Erin Maria Patrizia Cerasini (Lazio), Anastasia Ferrara (Roma), Matilde Pavan (Inter), Eva Schatzer (Juventus), Emma Severini (Napoli);
    Forwards: Nicole Arcangeli (Juventus), Chiara Beccari (Juventus), Alice Ilaria Berti (Sampdoria), Alice Corelli (Roma), Victoria Marie Della Peruta (Pomigliano), Elisa Pfattner (Juventus).

    Some of these players were already called By Milena Bertolini for occasional Senior Team's training camps during last season, including pre-Euro 2022 training camp in the last weeks.

    It doesn't surprise that the most represented teams are Juventus (5 players) and Roma (4 players), since Roma-Juventus was the final match of the Primavera tournament (Italian top-competition for youth club teams) that was played two weeks ago, on the 12th of June (Roma won their third consecutive title, a promising record for their Academy in the perspective of challenging Juventus in the senior league in the next years, but Juventus were almost as much impressive).

    This gives me an excuse to post at least the highlights of that final :) (although Primavera tournament had other exciting matches: you can find both highlights and full matches on the same official YouTube channel):




    I'll note that Italian-American Victoria Marie Dellaperuta looks like a permanent acquisition: let's hope she keeps chosing Italy in the years ahead also. Maybe @Pelefan will be inspired by the Italian exemple, since I know he constantly scouts for Philippine talent in other countries. :giggle:
     
  15. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Another loose-end: the question of franchises and sport-titles.

    Parma replacing Empoli in next year's Serie A was officialized (I had already talked about that, but the sale of the title still needed the approval of the Federation, that happened during last month).

    At least, another operation, that would have been even sadder in my eyes, ended up in a fiasco. For some weeks there were increasing rumours of an offer from Lazio (backed up by the money of Serie A's men's team) to Pomigliano (basically the only team in next year's Serie A Femminile that's not supported by a men's team, apart from newly promoted Como) to acquire their franchise.
    This would have sounded as unsportsmanlike as it gets, since, you see, Lazio had been relegated at the end of last season while Pomigliano had spectacularly saved themselves at the last match-day by winning the derby vs Napoli: so the rumoured deal would have basically reversed the sport results, with the relegated team playing in Serie A and the one actually conquering that right being moved to 2nd Division. :unsure:

    Luckily, despite the fact that the offer from Lazio was rumoured to be so finacially enormous to basically match the typical "offer that you can't refuse", Pomigliano's president Raffaela Pipola (who runs the club in the memory of her late daughter) decided that he wanted to go on with his team in Serie A, with the same passion and competence that was displayed in the last season and despite the increased costs that the opening professional league next year will imply.

    Very few of the clubs that aren't supported by men's clubs will survive for long, but I am happy that, at least for the moment, Pomigliano retained their sport-title. :)
     
  16. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    The last loose end basically consist of following the market season (or "silly season", if you want to use the silly American name :cautious:), but, apart from some spectacular hits and some solid rumours, we can't say that it has taken off yet and it probably won't until the end of Euro 2022.

    Anyway, the top teams already made some interesting moves, especially the ones going to play UEFA Women's Champions' League. Juventus had tried to sign Jordyn Huitema and Jackie Groenen, but both these deals failed. They managed to sign two impressive internationals instead in Lineth Beerensteyn and Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir; for the rest, their market campaign basically consisted of renewing the contracts of their stars until 2024 and of bringing back home some of their young talents who were on loan to other clubs (for instance Sofia Cantore from Sassuolo). Basically, the only important player they've lost so far is Andrea Stašková.

    Roma also re-signed most of their top-players (including internationals Andressa Alves da Silva and Emilie Haavi), found a much needed international for the CB position (Austrian Carina Wenninger from Bayern München) and are rumored to have the biggest hit of them all in their pocket with Valentina Giacinti! :eek: (Although she said from the NT camp that she doesn't want to talk about the market right now).

    Milan AC also seems quite well positioned, having already signed Kamila Dubcová from Sassuolo and being rumoured to have their hands on Kosovare Asllani, who already left real Madrid but didn't officialized her destination yet. :cautious:

    At the moment, it doesn't seem worth following all of the other movements that are starting to take shape in the other clubs, but it's a fact that the new professional league, along with the impression made by Juventus with their Champions' League run this season, seems to have made Italian league much more attractive to internationals.

    Given how crucial a solid Champions' League's run can indeed be, this post seems like as good as a place as another to briefly comment on how the draw went for the Italian teams :coffee:; Juventus of course had it very easy: neither their first opponent, Racing FC Union Luxembourg, nor the second one (the winner of the clash between Estonian champions of FC Flora Tallinn and Israeli champions of FC Kiryat Gat) can realistically pose any problem to the bianconere. The League Path will be obviously much more complicated for Roma: they'll first have to meet Glasgow City FC (an UWCL quarter-finalist in 2020) and, if they advance, they'll have to face the winner of Servette-Paris FC (a Swiss team that advanced to group stage last season and the 3rd-placed team of one of the top-leagues in Europe): it could have been worse, but of course Roma will need a very impressive performance to hope to reach group stage.
     
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  17. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    I hear that Małgorzata Mesjasz from Turbine Potsdam is also close to sign with Milan AC.
     
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  18. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    I had posted the Italy vs Switzerland video for you.:sneaky::D
     
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  19. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Oh, yeah: I graciously reciprocated by posting the Switzerland vs Italy video! :D:p
     
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  20. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    #1570 blissett, Jun 27, 2022
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2022
    I read that Roma should also be close to finalize the signing of Czech Kristýna Siváková and Polish Wiktoria Lewandowska, that I don't know anything about. Can you confirm, @Lechus7? :cautious:
     
  21. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    #1571 Lechus7, Jun 27, 2022
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2022
    Wiktoria Lewandowska (age 21) played last season in reserve team of UKS SMS Łódź (Polish Champions) in 2nd league. In 2019 she won Central Junior U-19 League with SMS academy. She also played for Poland U17 NT.
    That's all I know..
     
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  22. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    U-19 Italy, quite predictably, lost the debut match of this Euro Championship vs Spain by 1-3, the exact same score of the friendly match from one week ago (it had been scheduled way earlier than the draw of the tournament: no-one had figured that it could end being a repeat-match within one week), although back then Italy had tried many second-string players. just as on the 20th of June's match, Italy went ahead first (both times with Nicole Arcangeli, although today it was a PK), but Spain quite comfortably came back. Spain wasn't "unplayable" but anyway looked stronger and more mature than Italy.

    France won the other game of the group by 3-0 vs Czech Republic, so Italy will have to beat France on Thursday to get a chance of advancing to the semi-finals (not easy :unsure:).

    Of course the Senior Team actually didn't left to England yet :x3:. Before that, Spain and Italy will cross paths again with a friendly match, this time between Senior Teams. It's the send-off match before the Euros that will be played in Castel Di Sangro at 17:00 CET on Wednesday, the 1st of July. :coffee:
     
  23. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    The FICG have chosen the best goal of the season through a vote on their official channels: the winner was Martina Rosucci's scorcher vs Roma (I hate to embed Tweets, but I couldn't find the video in any other format :x3:):



    I can agree it was a wonderful goal, but in my opinion it mostly won for two reasons: it was a deciding goal in the run for the title (it equalized the inizial Roma's advantage in that match) and Juventus have so many supporters that they can't possibly lose an award that's decided by a popular vote. :cautious:

    I guess most of the loving followers of this thread will agree that there were better goals in Serie A Femminile this season: even just a look at the FIGC's selection that had Rosucci's goal chosen can show a pair efforts that look like they would have been more deserving:

     
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  24. Lohmann

    Lohmann Member+

    Arminia Bielefeld
    Germany
    Feb 24, 2020
    Nat'l Team:
    Germany
    If they have watched Poland vs Iceland they will say: No, thank you!:cautious:
     
  25. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    For Potsdam sake they better do! :laugh:
     

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