Verona keeps rebuilding the team with foreign players, in the last days signed the english defender Emma Lipman, 28 y.o., coming from Sheffield FC in WSL2, and the irish defender Shauna Peare, who last season played already here with San Zaccaria (now Ravenna Women).
According to the Calcio Femminile Italiano website, Fiorentina signed with a 2-years contract the strong english forward Ellie Brazil, from Birmingham Ladies, who recently played in the U19 Euro with the NT, although there aren't confirmation from the club nor from the player social media. Fiorentina attacking line this season is already very strong, with Gorannsson, Mauro, Bonetti, Caccamo etc. so I don't know if the girl will get much playing time but, since it's a 2-years contract and the girl is only 18 y.o., I presume it's a move scheduled to grew the player....anyway, congratulations to the club and Ellie Brazil too ! And this is for blissett: looks like that actually there is a japanese girl training with Pink Bari, if you go to their Facebook page you'll see a short-haired girl with asian features, but probably the photo are too small to recognize her...but I have also found a name: Uchi Homani, altough internet doesn't help me at all....I think it's a job for your Japanese friends !
I'll reach their Facebook page and then I'll try to retrieve info on Nadeshiko Japan's thread. Pink Bari are back in Serie A this year, aren't they?
Waouw it's great to see Fiorentina signing young foreign talent such as Brazil, Daniel and Rinaldi , I wonder if it's in their politics now?...I know the French girls signed forn only one season so may be they are kind of testing them and see what's gonna happen, anyway I like it.
I've asked on Nadeshiko Japan forum and it looks like the name of the player (at least if spelled that way) doesn't actually sound Japanese. And anyway, no similar name of any Japanese player name seem to occur. I wonder if Pink Bari will release any additional info.
And if, instead of Homani it had been Honami ? I did a bit of research myself and, although I didn't find any Uchi Honami, looks like that family name is actually Japanese...anyway, I saw that Pink Bari is frequently updating the page, so I think that we'll find out the answer very soon. Honestly I suppose that the girl is very young, probably coming from a high school (or university) team, nothing more...
Two more foreign players in the next Serie A: Verona signed the young Greek miedfilder Ioanna Maria Goula, currently in the U19NT. Juventus signed the Finnish forward Sanni Franssi, 22 y.o., from Zurich, who has some caps in the NT too.
Yesterday has been disclosed the calendar of the next Serie A season, that for the first time ever will have a title sponsor, Dolci Sapori ("sweet tastes"), a cake factory I hadn't heard of before....anyway, the season will start the 30th of September, the matches will be played as always on saturday afternoon, so far nothing has been said about the media coverage. About the 3 likely main contenders, Fiorentina, Brescia and Juventus, Fiorentina-Brescia will be in the 4th matchday, Brescia -Juventus in the 7th and Juventus - Fiorentina in the 8th. A week before the start there will be a big appetizer, the Supercoppa match between Brescia and Fiorentina. Meanwhile, Ellie Brazil has confirmed in her twitter page to have signed with Fiorentina for the next 2 season: England under-19s' Ellie Brazil signs for Fiorentina https://t.co/iq5lVifCOc #EPL— Premier League VAVEL (@EPL_VAVEL) September 6, 2017
Two more foreign girls are going to play in Serie A next season (I wonder if our "dear" Salvini will say something about this "invasion" ): Verona signed the english forward Shameeka Fishley, formerly playing in Iceland, and from Iceland too is coming at Brescia the USA-english defender (but she can play as a midfielder too) Brooke Hendrix who, by the way, is 181 cm tall ! With this one arrival i think Brescia has completed its roster, meanwhile for Verona a few more signings are expected...
Today Fiorentina and Brescia will play the Italian Supercoppa match (prize at stake between the clubs that won last season Coppa Italia and championship, or came as second). The match will be streamed here: https://www.calciofemminileitaliano.it/ , starting in half an hour (5 pm local time)
Brescia - Fiorentina 4-1 Here the goals: Clear victory of Brescia, that showed more pace, more hunger, better skills in spite of playing with a team new for 8/11. Great performance from Bergamaschi, really the POM and the 2 foreign girls playing (Mendes and Heroum) showed already a good affinity with the rest of the team. On the other hand Fiorentina has been surprisingly short of ideas in the midfield, of course the injury to Alia Guagni just before the HT didn't help, but for a team that bossed last championship it was really a disappointing performance...even the subbing in of Ellie Brazil didn't help the club to overtake the situation. Meanwhile about the mercato Verona keeps filling the team with foreign players: now is the turn of a Scottish defender, Madelaine May Hill, directly from Sunderland in WSL, and of the Iceland NT forward Biorg Thorsvaldottir, from Brejdablik, two very good signings on paper ! And they are testing a young forward from USA too....
At the end also Serie A started last saturday.... Easy wins for both Brescia and Juventus (the latter vs. Mozzanica, that with a last-minute partnership with the nearby men's club has become Atalanta-Mozzanica and will play with the same black-and-blue striped kit of the boys). Fiorentina, after the defeat in Supercoppa keeps struggling and grabbed a last-minute draw vs. a surprisingly good Verona that set a record (at least in recent years) putting in the pitch 6 foreign players in the starting 11, and Lana Clelland already on fire for Tavagnacco, but this is no news... The results: Pink Bari - Brescia 0-6 (Heroum, 2Bergamaschi, 3Girelli) Atalanta Mozzanica - Juventus 0-3 (2Bonansea, Glionna) Verona - Fiorentina 1-1 (Kongouli / Zazzera) Res Roma - Chievo 3-0 (2Nagni, Palombi) Sassuolo - Tavagnacco 0-4 (4Clelland) Empoli - Ravenna Women 1-1 (Bargi / Errico) A few highlights:
Second Serie A matchday last Saturday: Brescia and Fiorentina both managed to get a win in spite of some tireness after the CL matches, easy win for Juventus vs Res Roma, Lana Clelland (who else ?) carries away Tavagnacco in a big victory vs. Atalanta-Mozzanica, still at 0 points... The results: Brescia - Sassuolo 2-1 (2Giacinti / Tarenzi) Juventus - Res Roma 4-0 (Glionna, Boattin, Galli, OG) Tavagnacco - Mozzanica 5-2 (3Clelland, 2Brumana / Alborghetti, OG) Ravenna - Verona 2-3 (Baldini, Pugnali / Fishley, Nichele, Torsvaldottir) Fiorentina - Pink Bari 2-1 (Caccamo, Mauro / Soro) Chievo - Empoli 2-0 (Riboldi, Boni) The table: Juventus, Brescia, Tavagnacco 6 Verona, Fiorentina 4 Res Roma, Chievo 3 Ravenna, Empoli 1 Mozzanica, Sassuolo, Pink Bari 0
Blissett, the mistery of the Japanese player has been uncovered: https://www.facebook.com/apulia.trani/photos/pcb.1430244620344754/1430244393678110/?type=3 Too bad that Apulia Trani is playing in the D group, so the matches are all in the south of the country...but who knows, they could win the group and be promoted, or ending 2°-3° at the end of the season and, with the new rules, playing the national 12-clubs serie B championship next year... About serie A championship, the matches will re-start at the end of the month for NT duties, meanwhile Verona added another foreign international, signing a second Icelander, the defender Asgrimsdottir...in the first match the club fielded 6 foreign players, in the second 7, probably soon they will set another record...
Well, it's understandable that the Japnese thread couldn't seem to help me! Honami Uchiyama is quite different from Uchi Homani! Uchiyama is a quite common family name in Japan. I guess there were a pair of Uchiyama in Division 2 last season, although no-one of them was called Honami, if I remember well. I'll try to understand where she comes from!
According to our resident Nadeshiko Japan thread guru, @unepomme, Honami Uchiyama had her high school and university career in two of the most prominent clubs for young players: Jumonji High School at first and then Waseda University. So, expect an high level of technique from her: should be a good signing for Trani's team.
And me thinking that Honami (or Homani) was the family name, and Uchi the first name..., anyway, good find, for sure we'll follow the girl as close as we can !
Very sad that Brescia won't play their round of 16 Champions' League match vs Montpellier in their historical Champions' League stage, Stadio Rigamonti, beacuse men's club president didn't allow them. Women's team president, by his part, didn't want to encourage any controversy, but it seem to me that the men's club declared motivation (the women's team would have "ruined" the pitch) is very poor. Brescia women will have to move to Lumezzane (about 12 Km from Brescia, I guess) for the home match vs Montpellier. I watched a Brescia-Olympique Lyonnais Champions' League match in 2014 at Rigamonti stadium and it seemed to me that it had the right atmosphere for this kind of events. And it's surely easier to reach for supporters. I don't want to take anything from Lumezzane, but it seems to me that the women's team would have deserved to play on their usual stage.
Italian players do what they have to do, under new coach Milena Bertolini, and beat Romania by 3-0 in Castel di Sangro. Portugal and, especially, Belgium will be way tougher, but meanwhile we can enjoy the win. Highlights: Full match (with Patrizia Panico doing the colour-commentary ): http://www.raisport.rai.it/dl/raiSp...3-0-705ec80b-f78f-4ff7-9b44-e74841971026.html Interviews (second coach Sorbi was sitting in the bench instead of Bertolini for a bereavement in her family): I had never seen before Bonansea's piercing on her upper lip! Is it something new?
This is my favourite Italian player. Great skills. A fantasista, isn't that what you call these players? I think she can finally lift Italy to the World Cup. The group is favourable also.
Yes, fantasista is the word, although often this kind of players are more of a central-player just behind the FWs and less of a winger, as Bonansea in fact is (but there are exceptions, as Del Piero was in men's football). Yes, better than other groups, but Belgium looks quite tough anyway. And they can't seem to stop winning. In fact, among the things Bonansea said in theis interview, there is the clear notion that we'll have to win all of the other matches leading to the direct clash vs Belgium, including the insidious ones vs Portugal (our next opponent, and in an away match! ).
I gave a look at how the things are going in Spain. After 6 match-days in the league, Sevilla, as a newly promoted team, are struggling at 13th place (out of 16), although way ahead of the teams behind them. Martina Piemonte, though, is doing very good: she's second in top-scorers rankings with 5 goals (along with other players); probably, in a team like this, she's the veritable star-player. (see here for data). I wonder if she's somehow in Milena Bertolini's plans: has she ever been called in Senior Team? Meanwhile, let's enjoy her in this video-presentation to Sevillia, including an attempt at competing for Miss Italia.