The 2019 AFC Women's Club Championship (or FIFA-AFC Pilot Women's Club Championship) will be the first edition of the Asia's women's club football competition organised by AFC. It will be held in South Korea between 26–30 November 2019. Four clubs from four associations will compete in this edition. Story (AFC) 26.11.2019 Nippon TV Beleza (JPN) - Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club (CHN) Melbourne Victory (AUS) - Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels (KOR) 28.11.2019 Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels (KOR) - Nippon TV Beleza (JPN) Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club (CHN) - Melbourne Victory (AUS) 30.11.2019 Jiangsu Suning Ladies Football Club (CHN) - Incheon HS Red Angels (KOR) Melbourne Victory (AUS) - Nippon TV Beleza (JPN) Tournament stats site (AFC) Tournment site (Wiki)
History, star players, coaches: All you need to know about the contenders. (AFC article/ foto the-afc.com).
Wow, I wasn't aware Tabitha Chawinga was playing for Jiangsu Suning, nor that they had a dinasty of Precheurs as coaches! Looks like an exciting tournament and I can't wait to see if the matches will be up to the line-up. Maybe, the team that could let down is Melbourne Victory: they look quite depleted, compared to the previous season, and Aussie-W-League has just started so they could be less fit than their contenders. On the other hand, it's been a long demanding season for the other teams, especially for Beleza, with so many domestic tournaments and giving so many player to the NT for the World Cup. At which time are the matches scheduled? Probably too early for European viewers? Any chance that they can be streamed?
Fixtures and Standings (you can switch between local and your time) Tuesday and Thursday aren't so bad for European viewers (start at 8am and 11am). Saturday though it's quite early (4am and 7am). Nothing about streaming so far but Videos folder in offical site menu is... encouraging
"A total of 24 players from this year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in France are on the books of the four participating clubs, who supplied national team stars for six different sides in the global showpiece." World Cup stars set to shine (AFC/ foto. the-afc.com)
Just looking at who supplied who, damn if it isn't clear why the KOR and JPN clubs qualified for this tournament. Each one has basically half of their respective NT! Mismatch much?
In case of qualification for Incheon that's quite true as Koreans pretty much run unopposed in WK-League for years but it's different for Beleza. Parity in Nadeshiko League is on the rise. This year three rounds before season end there were still 4 contenders for the Championship title in Japan. Beleza won it after hard fight at the finish line, only three points ahead of Urawa at the end. Curious: CWSL, WK-League, W-League are professional leagues. Nadeshiko League is an amateur one (less than 30% have contracts). Pro-League in Japan will start in 2021 (since then Japan will have 4 tiers of women football in country)
I mean, it's good that parity is "on the rise", but just on that note, it sounds like the parity being seen this year wasn't the norm even recently. Beleza is five-times-running champions, right? Usually with a good gap over INAC? (I'm guessing the rising parity is in anticipation of going professional.)
True, duopol of Beleza and INAC pretty much dominated this whole decade (akin to Lyon and PSG in France D1) but no longer. I'd say rising club parity observed during last two years in Nadeshiko League is comming rather from higher number of quality players populating this league lately. On one hand we still have a good number of players from Japan's 2008-2015 Golden Years, lot of them although not in NT anymore, are still very good (look at Nagasato in NWSL or Kinga in W-League to compare) on the other hand there's a host of young players, medalist from various youth WWC 2014-2018 teams, that are now (at age 20-22) and breaking into senior football in various Japan clubs.
26.11.2019 15:45 (local time) Nippon TV Beleza - Jiangsu Suning L.F.C Where to watch: - 19:00 (local time) Melbourne Victory - Incheon HS Red Angels Where to watch: SPOTV+, NAVER, DAUM 생중계
Chawingaaaaaaaaaaa! The Malawian scores and Jiangsu take an unexpected lead after... let's say "5 minutes", ish
1-1, Beleza equalize through Mina Tanaka - she turned in a shot from 12 yards after, let's guess maybe "9 and a quarter" minutes. That was a bit too easy...
Still 1-1 after about... two dozen minutes, shall we say (there's no clock on the stream). Full team lists from Forza Suning:
Half-time, 1-1. Beleza have been the better team, but they keep nearly allowing Tabitha Chawinga to score on the counterattack repeatedly and uncontrollably. ] Now might be a good time to recycle that info on the Chinese league from 2018 - this is before Jiangsu became the Chinese champions, and before Dalian FC lost Oshoala and went from champs to chumps, relegated in 2019....
Not sure if Chawinga shouln't be even on the field. She elboewd Ariyoshi(?) in the face without the ball at the beginig of the game - which is yellow (not given) and then had 3-4 fouls. Jacewicz is showing double standarts - first goal was after obvious foul (no call) but when Tanaka was fouled in PK she turned blind eye - refeering for "the good of the show"
I can't say I'm noticing all of this foul play you keep talking about (could you maybe link to one or two standout examples after the game?) Generally, Jiangsu are definitely more physical in style. Beleza don't seem to be handling that so well. Second half, about midway through, 1-1, it's evened out a little..
Full-time! The tournament's first match ends Beleza 1 - 1 Jiangsu. Football was the winner Or more accurately, nobody was the winner 【Be】試合終了、日テレ・ベレーザ1-1江蘇蘇寧 #beleza #日テレ・ベレーザ pic.twitter.com/DoB0IdOzrZ— 東京ヴェルディ（TOKYO VERDY）公式⚽ (@TokyoVerdySTAFF) November 26, 2019
can watch the replay between Incheon & Melbourne V YouTube notes, this was really early morning for me, so at first didn't know which team was which, but upon close-ups; S Korea's famed 'deroxide' squad was in full bloom! Was looking for the Koreans most famous player, Lee Mina(noooo, not that she's the most talented, but apparently cuz of her K-pop looks). but not to be had on this team. Dunno where this game was being played?; impressive stadium, but in the smallish crowd. everybody was wearing the same dark colored winter jacket. So was this played in North Korea, or does the stadium just hand out jackets?(which would make an interesting concept, if I do say so myself) Aussie side; they're allready reeling cuz a couple of American, former players dished the W-league for not being competitive enough & hurting their performances later in the NWSL. V's defense should of been their strongest part, but proved to be fatal, CB Jenna McCormick needs to decide what sport she wants to play. soccer or Aussie style football?(as she's proven in this game; you can't play both at the same time!) edit; just found a replay of the 1st game haven't watched it yet, but they better have Lee Mina in it!