New cooling break at 78' (quite late, I wonder if it was really so needed. Urawa didn't slow down at all: I hadn't factored in that the subs probably want to impress to prove that they're as good as the starters. Anyway, this game gives a clear idea of how much ahead WE League is of most women's leagues in Asia. Probably just three of them can somehow hope to compare to it: Australia, South Korea and China. For all of the rest, the gap is at the moment unsurmountable.
16-0 at 82': a middle-range shot from Ami Takeuchi. Any more goals and we're surpassing the projection at HT.
It's fairly common outside Italy, probably due to Italy being the birth place of the Ultras movement. You can hear it used in countries like France or in the Maghreb countries as well.
On the bench, next to the player there are three jerseys, #7, #8 and #10. They are for Hana Takahashi, Hikaru Naomoto and Kozue Ando, who contributed to the title leading to this AFC Champions' League, but hadn't the chance to play in it.
At 90'+2', Odisha had the first shot on goal of the game (easily saved by Sakiko Ikeda), from a FK action in Urawa's half (also a first).
Identical action: Ririka Tanno from the left for Miki Ito: this time a DF tried to do something, but Ito scored anyway. 17-0 and the 2nd Half line-up did officially better than the 1st Half's one. After that, final whistle. Urawa Red Diamonds-Odisha 17-0, FT.
This is the first official edition of AFC Women's Champions' League, so they wanted to expand the format, compared to the experimental AFC Women's Club Championship from last year, by adding a third group, the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, but the impression is that it was maybe a little early for that. I can understand the need to represent all Asia at the final-stage, but what's the point of having teams pounded by 17-0 at group-stage (or even by "just" 7-0: that's the final score of Wuhan Jiagda vs Sabah; meanwhile Melbourne City are ahead by 2-0 at HT vs Iranians of Bam Kathoon). If anything, we have a team with a dinosaur in its crest in this competition (the Thai champions of College of Asian Scholars).
reminder In the first four seasons, there will be one entry per participating member association, with allocation based on the AFC Women's Club Competitions Ranking, which will combine their clubs' performance in the AFC Women's Champions League and the latest FIFA Women's World Ranking as follow: up to 2027–28: 70% club points + 30% national team points; from 2028–29 to 2029–30: 90% club points + 10% national team points; from 2030–31 onwards: 100% club points I guess we will see a bit more of competitive matches only past 2028... however I think AFC will need to reform the format even further at some point. Group phase of AWCL needs to be more competitive in order to attract fan base. Imo four strongest leagues need to be given at least 2 club entry and preliminary stage needs one more round of play-offs.
Melbourne City ended up winning by just 2-1 vs Bam Kathoon. The Iranian side was one of the few teams from this edition who had reached group stage in last year's competition also, but it anyway sounds surprising that the score was so close!
Yamashita starts in goal again for Man City vs West Ham. She is increasingly looking like the manager’s number one. Fujino drops to the bench. Hasegawa is, of course, sine qua non. Ueki starts for West Ham - they need all the help they can get..
The trend goes on: half of Inac's goal were scored by their Spanish players (3 out of 6 in the WE League, 2 out of 4 in the WE League Cup). Meanwhile, INAC lead the rankings along with Sanfrecce, but Urawa won't catch up with the two games they will miss for the AFC Champions' League until the 11th of December, so, from now on, we'll have to read the rankings as provisional. It did happen. Speranza even won their away game, for good measure. Iga, instead, lost to Viama, who thus managed to create some separation again from Nippatsu. Yuma Saito scored a brace and, since Yuzuki Tsuchiya didn't score today instead, she's now just 1 goal behind Shizuoka's striker. Interesting (?) tidbit: Iga had scored vs Viama with an own-goal in the first-round match also. In that case, though, it ended being the only goal of the match and it gave the win to Iga, while today it only made the loss less harsh for them. I wonder if the own-goal could have been scored by the same player, but Japanese score-sheets don't use to give the names of own-goals' scorers and I didn't bother to watch the two videos to check. The big news are that Yokoyama didn't score! Wait, but... I seemed to have read...? Ok, some Yokoyama scored, but it was Ai Yokoyama from Ehime in Division 1! Kumi Yokoyama, instead, was stopped from scoring for a round. In fact Belle only won by 0-1: probably, Imabari fought tooth and nail because they knew that with a loss they would have been passed by Tsukuba, because of their win from yesterday (as indeed it ended happening ). Meanwhile JFA Academy Fukushima caught up with FC Fujizakura Yamanashi at 2nd place, but they're still behind by goal difference. And, speaking about goals, Haruka Hamada scored her fifth since she came back playing for Yamato Sylphid. Another veteran player from a different level, that it would have been interesting to see battle with Kumi Yokoyama since the beginning of the league: probably not going to be scoring braces and half-tricks as the latter, but she anyway keeps scoring
Wow, Abu Dhaby Country Club are for real! They had a 2-2 draw vs Hyundai Steel Inchean Red Angels and the Korean team only managed to equalize at 90'+8' (this time it was Abu Dhabi being stunned in extra-time). Despite the draw they could still hope to top the group if they manage to score a lot of goal to Sabah, while Red Angels only manage to beat Wuhan with the minal margin (or worse). It looks like Abu Dhabi signed some European players from minor countries (Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina) who can anyway give them an advantage on the Asian stage; in particular Lidija Kuliš, who scored one goal for them today, was at 1.FFC Turbine Potsdam at the times when they were a dominating force at the Champions' League level (and they also had Yuki Nagasato in their team). On the other hand, did anyone see the game and know if Yoko Tanaka was on the pitch for the Koreans? Meanwhile, on the other match of Urawa's group, the hosts Ho Chi Minh City have beaten the Taiwanese side Taichung Blue Whale by 3-1: at the moment our goal difference anyway keep us comfortably at 1st place. Group B's clash between Kaya FC Iloilo (PHI) and College of Asian Scholars (THA) ended in a 0-0 draw. If the latter had the dinosaurs, they didn't show up on the pitch. This group is the one with less goals scored and apparently the more balanced one.
Long time no see! I have to make a few quick statements here to make up for my absence and then 1 big question to my dear Nadeshiko experts! Statements: 1) Momoko Kinoshita is the GOAT. Probably the most underrated player in the WE League and on this forum. She was ready for the National team a long time ago. 2) Yuzuki Yamamoto. Same as above, 2nd the most underrated player in the WE League and on this forum. Question: Please tell me, what happens to Omiya Ardija and the Red Cow (I mean Red Bull) regarding their Women's team? I hope Red Bull Holding will invest in women's teams and will create one of the best academies in Asia. Is it possible or not?
Welcome back! I've got no real answers to your questions, but were you shocked when Beleza lost at the 1st match-day of WE League? Omiya Ardija Ventus actually has everyone wondering. Someone here wrote that they didn't invest in defensve players. My personal theory is that it's due to Aya Sameshima's retirement.
There is no point in putting any expectations on Beleza, they selling all their best players at every transfer window. Imagine, Hasegawa, Fujino, Shimizu, Yamashita. Just Man City alone has 4 starters from Beleza. Add Momiki, Miura, Miyagawa, Tanaka and such. You can't replace all those players with academy kids and be consistent. p/s I want to get into Omiya Ardija Ventus project if Red Bull would invest enough into the women's side. I want to see an academy, similar to Beleza and JFA. Considering how conservative Japanese investors are, it's interesting what Red Bull strategy would look like.
Can I throw Nanami Kitamura into the mix of Beleza's underrated players? I always enjoyed seeing her play, and I was disappointed that she wasn't considered with the NT with the scarcity of FB due to injuries. I find it quite impressive already that they can achieve successive top 3 with these academy kids. It makes it even more frustrating that they keep selling their best players. The time that a player like Kinoshita became more experienced, they sold Hasegawa, Tanaka, Miyazawa, etc. Then the time for a player like Fujino to be more experienced, they sold Miura, Shimizu, Kobayashi (who returned now but still). And all of that to see Fujino leave already. It takes time to develop properly a young talent, but it just takes one good major tournament showing with the NT to leave the team.
Revenge on Iga for being the first team to beat them in a league game. This was always going to be a difficult game. Viama played with the speedy Nagano up front (got the idea watching Shizuoka with Tsuchiya?) It could have been much worse though Viama were 4 up before 40 minutes where Iga subbed in Fujita Rico to give them 3 in central defence. Seemed to help since Viama didn't score again. Also I do sometimes wonder of Goto Yuka. She in some games seems a bit slow to react, bit like the first half today. The second half she made some very good saves though. So a penalty and an own goal? Though they played some good football there's still the problem. I've been saying for the last 2 seasons that Iga don't have a goal scorer. They have players that can score a goal or two every so often but not a goal scorer. You can see this in the top 10 goal scorers. Iga are the only top 6 team without. I say that though we still don't know about Masano Runa. She's definitely good but doesn't get to play so often. Protecting her from injury while still quite young? I did mention this at the time. I think the ref got it wrong and that it should have been credited to Hata Miyu goal, the ball was going in anyway. From about 6:45, what do you think? ------------------------ So in both Division 1 and in Division 2 the 3rd placed team are 6 points clear of the 4th placed team. The 4th placed team in D2 is 9 points ahead of the 9th placed team with 9 points still to play for. The 4th placed in D1 is only 6 points clear of 9th with 6 to still play for.