Scotland: More support funds for women's football this month, this time a £100,000 anonymous donation from A Random. The money will go to 3rd-division clubs, who missed out on the larger donation to SWF in June. But there's still no fixture list, and the head of the league isn't naming any dates. Ireland: Women's National League is set to return. The delayed season will begin in August with a new format: https://wnl.fai.ie/news/1161-2020-wnl-season-gets-green-light-for-kick-off.html (Archive) Stephanie Roche(img: Noah Salzman, cc-by-sa) Defending champions are Peamount - international striker Stephanie Roche returns to the club after 6 years overseas. Former champs Wexford will seek to regain 1st place in the WNL, but have to do without the 2018 and 2019 player of the season Rianna Jarrett, now at Brighton in England. It'll be a 9-team Irish championship, compared to 8 in the 2019 league. It's adding new teams Bohemians and Athlone Town, while the 7th-place Limerick become Treaty United. The last-place Kilkenny United leave the division - captain Bronagh Kane is now at Athlone and is looking at a future in coaching: https://www.the42.ie/bronagh-kane-interview-5036701-Jun2020/ (Archive) The pandemic is less active in Ireland than in Great Britain, but still with some current cases and deaths from the virus. Northern Ireland: The 2020 season kickoff in April was delayed. According to the 23 June statement, "The 2020 NIFL Women’s Premiership and Women’s Academy League seasons will be played later this year in a reduced format". Coronavirus cases in Northern Ireland are thankfully very low at the moment, with no deaths from 4-10 July.
Yes: i saw her play when I was in Brittany for the U-20 WWC two years ago and I can tell you that she was both fast like a greyhound and offensively dangerous from her side. Too bad that she suffered a serious injury early in that tournament: I guess Spain dearly missed her when they met Japan again in the final after the clash at group stage.
Well, the front line does need to be improved, but I didn't say that the team have addressed all issues. The big three all had at least one full back who put up very impressive xA/KP stats. The same can't be said for United, and I don't blame them for choosing to address the full back area first.
For those interested by the finance side of things. Swiss Ramble has made a thread on the FA WSL clubs based on the account published for the 2018/19 season when Arsenal won the League ahead of City. Thread on the financial state of women’s football in England, focusing on the 12 clubs that competed in the 2019/20 FA Women’s Super League #FAWSL https://t.co/9mA1v0epbj— Swiss Ramble (@SwissRamble) July 6, 2020 Highest budget was Chelsea with £4.9M lowest was West Ham but Bristol and Spurs did not publish theirs. Bristol was surely lower than West Ham and Spurs were in the Championship with semi-pro ie part time players training in the evenings. Unlike United also in the Championship but already full time professionals with all the costs involved.
I’ve read that Stoney’s trying to make a pitch for Eva Navarro(currently at Levante), she’s the youth star from Spain, usually plays right side winger. That would give them then a solid winger combo with Galton coming down the left
Yes, I've seen those rumors. Never were as concrete as the Batlle ones, but we'll see. United have just officially announced Ivana Fuso, a young forward who has apparently captained the Germany U19s. Not a marquee signing as shlj mentioned that United aren't really looking to make those at the moment, but Fuso seems to be a bright talent.
How about the younger ones? Like in their 17s to 19s? Anyone that stands out but are sure bet to be good strikers?
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-coup-by-signing-south-africa-captain-van-wyk Glasgow City FC pull off transfer coup by signing South Africa captain Van Wyk Defender joins in time to play Wolfsburg in Champions League I am extremely excited to start this chapter, says 33-year-old Glasgow City have signed the South Africa captain, Janine van Wyk, in one of the most high-profile transfers in Scottish women’s football. The central defender, who has been capped 170 times for her country, has played at two Olympic Games and at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France. The 33-year-old has joined the Scottish champions as the part-time team prepare to play the German champions Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarter-finals on 21 August in San Sebastián. Van Wyk represented Fortuna Hjørring most recently but her contract with the Danish club was terminated in January after injury problems. The defender has also played for, among others, Houston Dash in the NWSL and the club she founded in South Africa, JVW FC. Uefa changed the rules this month to allow for up to six new players to be registered for the final seven games of the tournament, which has led to a flurry of signings from the eight teams left in the competition. “I am extremely excited to start this new chapter in my football career with a football club that is known to be the best team in the Scottish top league,” said Van Wyk. “I look forward to playing in the Women’s Champions League, win titles and most importantly continue to learn as much as I can about the insights of the game and hopefully add value to the squad with the experience I carry.” Glasgow City have received financial backing from the fund manager and philanthropist James Anderson to enable the club to compete in the mini-tournament to conclude the 2019-20 Champions League. A benefactor of Hearts Football Club, Anderson has also given £250,000 to help the women’s game through the pandemic and £3m to the men’s Scottish Premier League.
Per US boards, Glasgow City also took on loan from a Cypriot club a US FW who had scored against them last season: apparently they are at least trying to take their Champions' League upcoming match seriously. Last season she scored against @GlasgowCityFC for Cypriot side Somatio Barcelona FA - now American striker @krystynafreda is joining the Scottish champions and #UWCL quarter-finalists on loan from Apollon✍ https://t.co/aPUbcZaEwS pic.twitter.com/vQTJKZ7qS3— UEFA Women’s Champions League (@UWCL) July 13, 2020
Idk on Fuso, seemed like she played last season in Switzerland(where stats are hard to find). the newest trend might be is to try & pick up players that were otherwise headed to US colleges as it seems their soccer season might be postponed till spring. The good part is that WSL clubs wouldn’t have to pay them a salary if those girls still want to go back to US colleges in the future! Anne Patten(South Carolina U & Florida ST) was seen practicing with Arsenal yesterday.
In other news, the Lewes general manager Maggie Murphy explains what her job does entail. They play in the Championship and are semi-professional. They pay the main and women team equally. Also a surprising news, a majority of the FA WSL clubs do not want the League to be taken over by the Premier League but rather by an independent organisation. Considering the FA who is managing the FA WSL is working really hard to make the FA WSL the women version of the Premier League, it is a strange having this feeling from the clubs. After all, the FA opened a lot of backdoors for club to get in the FA WSL or the FA WC on non sporting criteria and bypassing all the clubs that have been climbing the ladder steps by steps for years.
West Ham just signed Katrina Svitkova, arguably the Czech’s Republic best player. She’s really accurate with some of her medium/long range shots, Excellent catch for West Ham, especially considering they had the lowest budget of all the WSL clubs, though surprised at that fact since like last season they had 14 internationals(and you would think it be hard to pay for an flat in London on an average woso salary, lol)
It would still be a budget consideration, but is housing part of player salary? I don't think the overall level of those 14 internationals is that great though.
It would be harder to argue against her being the best Czech player right now, she's monopolized our Footballer of the year award since 2018. Every time I've seen her for Slavia in Champions League or national team looks several levels ahead of her teammates.
my bad, 17 internationals last year, this season? England - West Ham United LFC - Results, fixtures, squad, statistics, photos, videos and news - Women Soccerway some of the pro clubs have their own, dorm style living quarters on their property, but if the players are anything like bratty college kids, after a while who would want to keep living in them? the goal in the 70th minute is brilliantly showing off her long range accuracy LM: Slavia - Bayern 1:1 (0:0) - YouTube her passing ability might be even better(though can't verify the quality of the opposing defenders, lol) Katerina Svitkova highlights - YouTube
So actually the time stamped section on the highlights is against Sparta Prague, which is the only other worthwhile club in Czech Republic for the women's game. While she obviously has great technical ability, to me the biggest thing that sets her apart is vision and field awareness. She always has her head up and seems to see the whole field, a good example would be her assist against England back in November.
My prediction is she’ll most likely put the league ablaze, or at least win rookie of the year. West Ham only got 8th place last year, a slight disappointment since they made it to the finals of the Conti Cup the previous season. Yesterday they signed French international, Hara Cissoko, so they seem to keep trying to improve. So far former teen sensation, Alysha Lehmann has blossomed into a bonafide super strike. But she’s only 21, got fast legs & with Katarina’s passing, might just get there
I think the biggest question I have is how quickly will she adapt physically. In the Czech league highlights defenders more or less bounce off her. She holds her own internationally/Champions League. but this will be a completely different level of competition week-in/week-out as England is an elite league and arguably the best in the world. The talent is definitely there.
Does the WSL have a Newcomer award? (I hesitate to call her a rookie. Even rookies in the NWSL are younger than she is.)
among bookies, Jill Ellis is the odds on favor to become England NT's new coach, but Sydney Leroux had nothing nice to say about Jill Zach on Twitter: "“We won in spite of her” ( drop) https://t.co/JvNqFVJdSq" / Twitter
Wow. Well, I think Ellis is pretty well-spoken, and even though I agree with Leroux about the 2015 WWC, it's not like Ellis is a novice when it comes to football. I'm pretty sure she knows more about the intricacies of the sport than I do. Honestly, I'm a bit thrown off by Leroux's candidness here. However, she did have first hand experience with Ellis as coach on a team that didn't win anything, so she likely had more frustrations with Ellis than most.
I’ve read ‘physical’ is the one word most often used to describe the WSL. They do have the makings of the best league in the world; another excellent recruiting year for not just the big 3(they hook wind from the NWSL what seemed the entire Aussie national team!). But they still got to prove themselves on various fronts; England’s NT has only won 3 out of their last 11 games champs Man City had an early exit this year in the Champions League rather weak in developing Youth players; despite having their best, James & Hemp, ENG’s u19 couldn’t even get out of group play at last year’s Euro u19 championship