Consolidating links October 28, 2008
Posted by lem in League, News, Tournaments.Tags: Canada, Iceland, New Zealand, Queensland Roar, Republic of Ireland, Russia, Scotland, Sydney FC, U-17 Women's World Cup, W-League
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- If you live in any of these countries, you can watch the U-17 Women’s World Cup live and for free via
Fifa.com TV. I believe that Eurosport will be airing the matches, otherwise your best bet is the daily video highlights at the Fifa website. - The host nation of the U-17 Women’s World Cup, New Zealand, today narrowly lost to Canada in the tournament’s opening match.
- Scotland narrowly lost to Russia in the first leg of their Euro 2009 qualifying play-off (The Scotsman’s report of the play-off, I note, is as replete with understated fatalism as any match report concerning the men’s team). The Republic of Ireland, however, drew 1-1 with Iceland — a nation ranked 10 places higher than Ireland.
- FourFourTwo Australia is running a series of fan blogs for clubs in the Australian national leagues: Fiona Crawford blogs on Queensland Roar’s debut match in the W-League.
- Sydney FC currently sits on top of the W-League on goal difference. Sports traditionalists in Australia are eyeing the growth of football with considerable skepticism, so here’s to the women proving doubters wrong.
Over in the mother country October 21, 2008
Posted by lem in News, Tournaments.Tags: Chelsea Ladies, Euro 2009, homophobia, Scotland, Women's Premier League
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“Apart from the money we’ve got through Rovers’ brilliant efforts, we’ve got practically nothing coming into the club. It’s got to the point where we recently had a bucket collection at a Rovers match. Our players, some of them internationals, were begging in the rain to get cash for us to meet our bills.” — Jonathan James, Doncaster Belles chairperson
Doncaster Belles will stay afloat until January thanks to a fundraising match by the Doncaster Rovers, but still desperately need sponsors. Things look rather bleak for the Women’s Premier League’s oldest club — I hope they won’t end up going the way of Charlton Athletic, who managed to find new sponsors but too late to retain most of their best players.
Chelsea’s Danni Buet has been awarded the Women’s Premier League Player of the Month Award for September. Congratulations!
There’s more to look forward to this weekend apart from the W-League: Scotland will meet Russia in the first of a two-legged play-off to determine which side will progress to the Euro 2009 finals. Scotland has never made the play-offs before (they defeated Slovakia to make it this year) and, if successful, they’ll be in the finals for the first time.
A point of interest: England FA to take on homophobic abuse? One summit does not a concrete commitment make.
Australia’s most consistent team? I think so October 21, 2008
Posted by lem in News, Tournaments.Tags: AFF Women's Championships, Australia, Vietnam, W-League
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The Matildas have won the ASEAN Football Federation Women’s Championships, with a little luck from an own goal by Vietnam’s Do Thi Ngoc Cham. Reports from Vietnamese sources were more detailed than Ye Olde Generic Press Releases, yielding a match report and reactions from both coaches on the Vietnamese team.
I can’t wait for the weekend! More on the people who made the W-League happen — and may I say that the comments to the news article gave me a little more hope for the future?
Kelly Smith fires England into Europe October 3, 2008
Posted by lem in News, Strikers, Tournaments.Tags: England, Euro 2009, Kelly Smith
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Sonia Bermúdez (left) and Kelly Smith (right). © UEFA.
England survived a scare to make it to Euro 2009, thanks to Kelly Smith’s equaliser 13 minutes from time. The draw also consigns Spain to a two-legged play-off against the Netherlands.
Kelly Smith has been playing for the Arsenal Ladies (otherwise known as The Club That Won Pretty Much Everything in Women’s Club Football, Ever) as a striker since 2004, and received her first cap for the England national team at the age of 16.
Below the jump is Kelly Smith’s brief appearance in Jonothan Ross’ show in 2007. In hindsight, it could’ve been much worse.
