✦ Europe club women's football / piłka nożna kobiet

Discussion in 'Women's International' started by sbahnhof, Jan 2, 2020.

  1. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Who are the Champions?

    [​IMG] Denmark's 2019/20 season ended with a title decider. Fortuna Hjørring got the draw they needed on Saturday, and were champions by 2pts over Brøndby. This continues the polite duopoly, as they have alternated the title for 7 years now. Who could interrupt it? 3rd-place club Nordsjælland has a high aim - to play in the women's Champions League by 2023.

    Fortuna Hjørring 1 - 1 Brøndby
    Caroline Møller 18'p / Nanna Christensen 44'

    Full match: Mycujoo / Match report: DR.dk (Archive)


    [​IMG] Kosovo has its 10th champion after a prolonged season, and it's 3-in-a-row for Mitrovica. A tiny margin won it: the top 2 clubs were level on 31pts, and a playoff was ordered. Kaltrina Biqkaj hit an extra-time winner barely over the line. - (Match report: literal.media / Archive)

    Mitrovica (green) 1 - 0 Feronikeli, AET
    youtube.com/watch?v=p7tRiO9d6U0
    [​IMG]


    That's okay, "We Are the Champions" is the most boring choice by now!

    I was wondering (for anyone)
    If you say "champions", or the equivalent word... Which team do you mean? The league winners? The cup winners? Both? I think I'd only use it for one of them.
     
  2. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    #27 sbahnhof, Jul 4, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 4, 2020
    Hold that thought -

    There's news from
    [​IMG] Montenegro: The champions in the former Yugoslav nation are Breznica, in a 2019/20 season of two halves. The team from the north have 5 titles in succession now, but this was no easy win.

    The women's championship previously moved from 7-8 teams to a low of 4. This season had 6. The most successful club in men's football has the 2nd-placed women's team now - Budućnost ('Future') beat Breznica 4-3 in June, the champions' first defeat for 3 years. The next week, Breznica beat the former champs Ekonomist 1-0 with a late goal, in a mashup of a tense football game and a relaxing rain sound video

    Breznica 1 - 0 Ekonomist - (Merima Gradinović 85')
    youtube.com/watch?v=Lfa-SIA7IRA
    [​IMG]


    In a must-win game on 2 July, Breznica sealed the title 2-1 at home v Budućnost at the Gradski stadion, going ahead by 6 points. The coronavirus outbreak had interrupted the Montenegrin leagues for three months. This weekend is the last game, although the ŽFL league page seems to be missing a couple of other matches.

    After Montenegro split from Serbia, the first women's champion was Budućnost in 2008 (when games were 60 minutes), so it'll be interesting to see if the team can sustain its return. Breznica gets some huge scores in the league, especially Jelena Vujadinović with 35 goals, but the club lost its 2019 European qualifier to Kosovo's Mitrovica.
     
  3. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Denmark's duopoly is over - at least in the cup, where a historic season ended on Saturday with the final. Every final for 16 years included Fortuna Hjørring or Brøndby, but in 2019/20, the rising stars Nordsjælland Farum beat those favourites in the quarter- and semi-finals. Amalie Jørgensen Vangsgaard's header began a 2-1 win at Fortuna to reach the final.

    The cup was won with a 1st-half goal by Camilla Kur Larsen, final score: Nordsjælland 1, Thy-Thisted 0 (match report by NordJyske.dk). After the men's cup final was delayed by the ref because a fan group ignored distancing rules, the women's game also raised a few questions.

     
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  4. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    #29 Lechus7, Jul 8, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 8, 2020
    [​IMG] Poland Ekstraliga & League 1

    Notice about clubs withdrawal and changes for upcoming season.
    [​IMG]

    KKP Bydgoszcz and LKS Rolnik Głogówek avoid relegation due to TS Mitech Żywiec and AZS PWSZ Wałbrzych withdrawal from the league. Unfortunatelly management of the two last mentioned clubs was unsuccessful in finding means (money) to support their teams in upcomming season. Let's hope that those were the last victims of coronavirus crisis touching women's football in PL.

    Meanwhile WKS Śląsk Wrocław club from Ekstraklasa (men's top tier league in PL) has just bought women's top tier team AZS Wrocław.

    By doing so WKS Śląsk Wrocław became the only club having both men's and women's team playing in top tier leagues next season (three other men's Ekstraklasa clubs also have their women's section but playing in lower tier leagues).

    Few days after the merger regional leading recycling and waste management company was announced as main sponsor of women's team.

    [​IMG]

    Everything seem to point that move made by WKS Śląsk Wrocław encouraged other men's top clubs in Poland to extend their helping hand to womens clubs in view of covid19 crisis. Lot of talks is going on about now of couple of other mergers happening in upcomming month.
     
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  5. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    [​IMG] Ekstraliga signed 3 year deal with TVP Sport
    One match on each Saturday gameday will be shown in TV and in app.



    TV schedule for upcomming league start in August.
    [​IMG]
     
  6. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    I'm told this board doesn't have enough Nordic content, so

    [​IMG] Finland: In 2019 the Liiga trophy returned to the original champions, HJK Helsinki. Previously HJK were European semi-finalists, and Finnish women's champions 22 times between 1971 and 2005 in the SM-sarja, championship series, which they dominated.

    But when the renamed Liiga began in 2007, the capital club HJK couldn't win one. The new queens of Finland were the nearby club in Vantaa, PK35, who won seven titles and three league/cup doubles – but it came crashing down after Vantaa's 2018 title as their parent club went bankrupt. They were relegated, but won promotion from the 2nd division (Ykkönen) in 2019.

    HJK Helsinki 1 - 2 Vantaa, 2018
    (Linda Ruutu 38'p / Ashley Riefner 6', Kaisa Collin 30')
    youtube.com/watch?v=iYHCQ1a6u04
    [​IMG]


    The two other champion teams in the 2010s were Åland United from the Swedish-speaking islands, and a dramatic win by FC Honka in 2017. Their last-minute goal won the title-deciding match at Vantaa, a header by Anna Auvinen:

    PK35 Vantaa 0 - 1 FC Honka, 7 Oct 2017
    youtube.com/watch?v=bXHj734y6hg
    [​IMG]


    Like in Denmark, the Finnish title is decided with a round-robin of the top 6 teams at the end of each season. All the main clubs are back in the 2020 Liiga, but after 6 games the leaders are the southerners TiPS, a rising club in recent years. In July they won the Vantaa derby 2-0 at PK35 Vantaa, with TiPS' goals by Roosa Ariyo and Oona Siren.
     
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  7. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] In Ukraine, the women's league returned on 2 July 2020 to complete the season. (See WPFL.com.au / English)

    Kharkiv's second most successful club, Zhytlobud-2 are in the lead on 45 points, and they host the defending champs Zhytlobud-1, who have 44pts, in an effective title decider on Sunday (15:00 GMT).
     
  8. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    This was the match to decide Ukraine's likely champions. Some international players on both sides: Zhytlobud-2 has the league's top scorer on 16 goals, Yana Kalinina, while Z-1 has the national team's top scorer Daryna Apanashchenko. Two red cards make it look like a violent derby, but, nah, the ref just hated timewasting and kicking the ball away. Football's worst crimes :)

    Zhytlobud-2 vs Zhytlobud-1 Kharkiv
    youtube.com/watch?v=s8qLWUWayrc
    [​IMG]

    Z-2: 23 Samson - 17 Korsun, 29 Podolska, 27 Ryzhova (16 Kotyash 34'), 99 Filenko, 77 Tril (4 Sirmai 78'), 15 Andrushchak, 5 Andrukhiv, 7 Malakhova, 10 Kalinina, 22 Kravchuk (11 Skorynina 84')
    Z-1: 31 Sanina - 18 Utytskykh, 21 Kostyuchenko, 3 Aleksanyan, 6 Basanska, 20 Kochneva (88 Voronina 46'), 5 Havanska (10 Neseterenko 77'), 17 Apanashchenko, 55 Shevchuk (9 Petryk 46'), 96 N Kunina (13 Sidorenko 60'), 8 Boychenko - (Match report)


    Game highlights are on the same channel.
    youtube.com/watch?v=r1XkZmKcuU0
    Ukraine's 2019/20 season ends on 31 July, more than a year after it began! The 3rd-place team will be Voskhod, who won 5-0 over Mariupol (7th) to a surprise soundtrack of absolute Pop Bangers.
     
  9. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Bosnia's women's champions have broken a world record. When SFK 2000 Sarajevo were awarded the 2019/20 title, it was their 18th in a row. SFK lost the championship only once, in 2001/02.

    But a divided history has affected football in Bosnia-Herzegovina - teams from the large regions named Republika Srpska joined the women's league only in 2013 (men's in 2002) and provided the women's runner-up at their first attempt, ŽFK Banja Luka in '13/14. The new season in the league, PŽL, kicks off on 15 Aug.

     
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  10. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Albania managed to complete the 2019/20 women's season after lockdown, and there was a good announcement from the federation, FSHF, extra financial help at youth level, and every top club must have a women's team.

    For now, Vllaznia are the undisputed best team in the country, often winning with double-figure scorelines; a 0-0 with Apolonia in July was Vllaznia's first league draw for years. They won a European CL qualifying group for the first time in 2019. Vllaznia also makes up much of the Albania national team, which didn't enter competitions until 2013.

    Vllaznia v Apolonia (2019)
    youtube.com/watch?v=oqzYOeDw7Sk
    [​IMG]
     
  11. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Bulgaria: In the 35th year of the women's league, after an enforced mid-season break, NSA Sofia took their 17th title since 1991. But in the 1980s, things were different...

    From the first women's championship season in 1985/86, it reportedly became quite popular, with the country's biggest club CSKA Sofia champions twice, after Akademik Sofia won the first three titles. In a ten-year run, Grand Hotel Varna kept the title on the east coast for a decade, before FC NSA Sofia of the National Sports Academy became the No.1 team.

    Bulgaria's top national player in caps and goals, Elena Peeva, was a player and manager at Varna.
    Елена Пеева: Да играя футбол е моята сбъдната мечта / Elena Peeva: To play football is my dream come true - (chernomore.bg, Archive)
     
  12. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Another close season in Croatia, where the title could go back to the formerly dominant Osijek, or the new champions of last year, ŽNK Split.

    They met in week 7 in December in heavy fog. Osijek won 1-0 (apparently!) to take the advantage.

    [​IMG]

    The pair won all of their other games before the last regular match week, the 14th round. At the ŽNK Split training ground, it was a home win. But Osijek's last-minute goal left them in 1st place on head-to-head away goals.

    ŽNK Split 2 - 1 ŽNK Osijek - HNLŽ, 5 July
    Bukač 20', Hadžić 63' / Bulut 90'
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS1cZBmIvC8
    [​IMG]


    But that isn't the end - the Croatian league (HNLŽ) brought back championship playoffs in 2019/20 that it previously played in 2012. The top 4 are grouped in a double round robin which ends on Sunday, eleven months after the season began. Teams kept their season's points, e.g. Split and Osijek were level on 39pts. The bottom 4 are in a relegation playoff too.
     
  13. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Croatian playoffs: ŽNK Split win a 2nd title in a row, in a crazy tussle with Osijek. The clubs beat each other once again in the round robin, but Split won the championship on head-to-head after a 7-1 home win - Osijek won the return game 4-1 but couldn't regain the title. Osijek's Lorena Balić is top scorer. Sportalo says the great club Osijek had lost some key players, and their longtime coach Branko Perković passed away in 2018.

    [​IMG] Switzerland: Since the 1980s Zurich have been the most successful team in Nationalliga A, which has a half-century history, but now they re-start from zero because the league changed its name to the distinctive "Women's Super League" :rolleyes: (it'll change back by January). In 2017 the champions Neunkirch withdrew for financial reasons.

    The Covid pandemic abandoned the season in 2020, preventing a title race and maybe a win for Geneva club Servette, who led by a point and would've been the first Swiss champion from the French- or Italian-speaking areas since 1989 when Lugano won. The new 2020/21 season is underway, and Servette have made a storming start with 4 wins - coverage on the AWSL site and Abseits.ch.

    Basel 3 - 1 FC Zurich - (Surdez 2, Zhemaili pen / Humm)
    https://www.facebook.com/1045648642188740/posts/3214302395323343
     
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  14. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Very distinctive indeed. :rolleyes: Why are they going to soon change back a so distinctive name?
     
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  15. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Oh, it's just a prediction. The second division kept its name "Nationalliga B", but if they used English FA logic, they would rename it as Nationalliga A :confused:
     
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  16. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Another Swiss game on Saturday - FC Zurich reduced the gap by winning at home to Servette (1st). It must be Bachmann's shining influence, there was a rare double-dive in the area by Fabienne Humm (no penalty or double-booking). Then, Humm won the game with her second goal, a diving header. :cautious:

    FC Zurich 2 - 1 Servette - (Humm 49', 78' / Maeva Sarrasin 40')
    Highlights: Swiss Women's Football Facebook / Match report in German / French / Italian
     
  17. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    It's certainly topical, but not a happy occasion, to look at football in the two nations where a conflict broke out this week:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG] Armenia has had women's teams since the 1980s, often in a lonely and precarious existence for the national team and clubs. Armenia entered the first Uefa Women's Cup in 2001 with CSC (College) Yerevan, but missed the next 17 seasons. Some Armenians who have played for clubs abroad are Kristine Mangasaryan in Sweden and Nancy Tchaylian in Lebanon.

    Meanwhile, there were concrete improvements in Armenia: hosting Euro U19 qualifiers in 2018, and the return of club and country to senior international games in 2019/20. The FFA women's championship grew to 15 teams in 2 divisions. Twice champions, Alashkert were well beaten in Europe and are years away from being competitive, but their 2020/21 league opener with Hayasa, despite the rustic surroundings, showed a pace and skill level that might surprise a few people.

    Alashkert champions (2019/20)
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrVYn9LeGt8
    [​IMG]

    Match report: FFA.am (Archive)


    [​IMG] Azerbaijan is more of a puzzle - out of the womens' Champions League for over a decade, while the national team plays fairly regularly now. But what about the clubs? The Women's U17 World Cup drew attention in 2012, but maybe it was more than a government "sportwashing" event like the men's Europa League final. The women's youth World Cup hosting has, slowly, been matched by improvements in club football.

    Azerbaijan had an improbable women's European quarter-finalist club, Gömrükçü Baku in 2003/04, but Azeri clubs left the competition in 2007/08. From around 2014, the AFFA and Unicef funded a set of annual youth leagues, and in 2018 the federation's language changed from promoting girls' football to women's football. So, it's possible we'll see more Azeri internationals playing in the Yüksək Liqa (Premier League), and clubs entering Europe again - but these are very uncertain times.

    Sumqayıt won the Yüksək Liqa (2018)
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=REC5FkFvzq4
    [​IMG]

     
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  18. ASU55RR

    ASU55RR Member+

    Jul 31, 2004
    Brooklyn, NY/Brno,CZ
    Club:
    FC Zbrojovka Brno
    Nat'l Team:
    Czechia
    In the Czech Republic, Sparta Prague took an early advantage in annual two horse race beating Slavia 5-1 in the first derby round. The match was tied at half time, but Slavia's defense fell apart in the 2nd half. After 5 Rounds the table is:

    upload_2020-9-29_11-33-40.png

    FC Slovacko are the closest thing to a challenger, and actually stated this year that their goal was to make Champions League (meaning finish in the top 2), but it looks like they are still a fair amount behind the top 2 having lost to Sparta (1-3) and Slavia (1-5) already. Their status as the 3rd club is undeniable though as they've beaten their other 3 opponents by a combined score of 11-2.

    Relative to the stature of their men's club, Slovacko have probably* made the biggest investment in their women's team as they are effectively semi-professional now, and they actually lead the women's league in average attendance. On the men's side they are sort of mid-to-low table and have a lower than average budget. Since in most European leagues the women's clubs are sort of funded by the men's team, the fact that a club so much smaller in budget has built an (almost) competitor is impressive. The only club that could realistically compete with the Prague S clubs in resources is Plzen but they have so far shown no interest in women's football.

    * I say probably because Lokomotiva Brno HH are a first division women's side, but are way down in the amature levels on the men's side.
     
  19. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Thanks for the post, @ASU55RR! I'm happy to see the campaign #HolkyTaky showing up on live Czech games this year, and surprised that a hashtag is able to sponsor a TV show...

    [​IMG]
    "This hashtag is not available in stores"
     
  20. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Slovakia: The greatest women's team in the 1970s and '80s won twelve Slovak league championships, Skloplast Trnava. Their ex-player Anna Belková has spent decades as a manager and director too. The club was taken over on its 50th anniversary in 2014 by Spartak Trnava and has since won promotion back into the women's first division (I Liga Žien).

    In the 21st century, the title hasn't been only Slovan Bratislava's possession. Two clubs beat them to it in multiple seasons, Slovan Šaľa (4 in a row) and Nové Zámky (3 in a row), but both were relegated later. The recent challenger is Partizán Bardejov - the northeast club, from near Poland, were 2017 champions and 3-time cupwinners.

    Bardejov [blue] 1 - 1 Slovan Bratislava (Pens: 4-1)
    www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY4mDtBUckQ&t=15s
    [​IMG]
     
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  21. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Soon enough we'll know the next champions in the winter/spring league seasons. Here's a roundup from countries that play a summer league schedule, starting with a win in Belarus that knocked a frequent name out of the Champions League:

    [​IMG] Belarus started its 2020 season infamously during the Covid pandemic, with the Super Cup in March won by FC Minsk, the sole champions from 2013 to 2019. Since the league began in 1992 post-USSR, the most successful club has been Babruichanka Babruisk (11 titles).

    The new champions are Dinamo-BGU FK, a division of Dinamo Minsk, who apparently took over the previous 4th-placed club Islač. Dinamo stormed to its first title with three match wins over FC Minsk.
    - "Claudia Dabda’s Dinamo beats Alvine Njolle’s Minsk, end of 21 months unbeaten run for Minsk" - (Kick442)

    The title was sealed with three games to go, and Dinamo won the league by 12 points. Dinamo also won the cup final vs Minsk in September on penalties.
     
  22. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] Finland's season had an exciting ending, and the league trophy went to the Baltic islands:

    TiPS were overtaken, and Åland United won their third title since founding in 2008. It came down to the last match, when Åland Utd won away at the 5th-place FC Honka.

    Coming from a goal down, Spanish midfielder Rosita, American Shannon Simon and Swede Emelie Johansson won the game for Åland, 3-1. They ended on 43 points, two ahead of TiPS, who drew 1-1. Goal difference also favoured Åland. Anni Miettunen won player of the year.
    - "Åland United celebrates National League championship" - (yle.fi / Archive)

    The Finnish league is one of the first women's leagues to change to a gender-neutral name, National League (Kansallinen Liiga). The Suomen Cup 2020 had the same winners and runners-up, as Åland beat TiPS 2-1.

     
  23. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    [​IMG] After Estonia held the first international football match post-lockdown with its women's team in 2020, the league completed its 20-round season in November. The last game was a matchup of the top two clubs - FC Flora had already won their third title, while Tallinna Kalev moved up to 2nd place, but were far behind. Still, it took some great goals to make Flora's title party a winning one. The new club Pärnu JK Vaprus finished 4th.


     
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  24. Lechus7

    Lechus7 Member+

    Aug 31, 2011
    Wroclaw
    Club World Cup and also Europa League (2nd tier after UEFA Champions League) in the works
     
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  25. sbahnhof

    sbahnhof Member+

    Nov 21, 2016
    Aotearoa
    Nice! Maybe @Lechus7 those competition proposals could have more to discuss in a new thread?

    (I mean, I do like the idea that the Europa League is of equal stature to the Estonian league, but...) :)
     

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