The last week has been a busy one in the world of Women's Football, Team GB have played four fixtures in Universiade, Caroline Charlton and ACF Torino played their final league games of the season and we have the latest from Euro 2013.
First up then Team GB played their first World University Games match last Friday, easing to a 2-0 victory over Brazil. Next for the girls they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Japan meaning they had to win the final game against Estonia to progress to the Quarter Finals. Liverpool Ladies' Sam Chappell started the final group game as GB beat the Estonians 5-1 to set up a quarter final tie with Ireland. That game took place yesterday with GB racing 3-0 ahead at half time and the game finishing a resounding 8 - 0. The Semi Final will take place in the next few days.
Katie Brusell, on loan at Ottawa Fury, scored in one of two games for the Fury this week. On Sunday afternoon Ottawa Fury welcomed Quebec City Amiral for a league game which aided fundraising for 'Think Pink', Katie started this game and despite playing well (read the match report here) the Fury were beaten 1-0. In their second game this week against league leaders Laval Comets the teams went in level at half time with no goals scored, Brusell was brought on after the break and almost straight away put Ottawa up 1-0. They were unable to hold onto the lead with the Comets equalising shortly after and scoring a winner in injury time.
ACF Torino, sporting 3 Liverpool girls, had their final two league games this season in the last week. On Sunday Torino were beaten 2-1 by Lancaster Inferno, this meant they missed out on a spot in this years play offs. Torino faced the same opposition again a few days later in their final league game this time (after a break in play because of the weather - see picture below!) the game finished goalless.
The latest copy of She Kicks magazine dropped through my letterbox this week and I was pleasantly surprised to see an interview with Liverpool striker Natasha Dowie in there! Natasha talks about making the decision to leave Everton for Liverpool and her disappointment in missing out on a place in the Euros squad. Also within the magazine is an interesting comparison between Dowie and the other league strikers with lots of stats if you like that sort of thing!
On Monday evening The Women's Football Show was back with it's second offering, previewing the Euros. None of the England sections featured Liverpool players however when previewing Group B, reds midfielder Katrin Omarsdottir popped up with some great footage shot at Anfield and a short interview in which she talks about her qualities (er... everything!) and Iceland's chances.
Onto the Euros then! After what felt like ages building up to the tournament it finally kicked off in Sweden on Wednesday, the first game was Italy - Finland and ended in a goalless draw. Up to the hosts Sweden then to provide the first entertainment of the Euros so far, their first game against Denmark finished 1 - 1 with the Swedes having 2 penalties saved.
Katrin and Iceland faced Norway in their Euro 2013 opener last night. Katrin started the game on the bench, coming on after 83 minutes shortly after her introduction Iceland were correctly awarded a penalty and Vidarsdottir coolly slotted home. Iceland finished the game strongly but were unable to find a winner, the final result being Norway 1 - 1 Iceland.
England have their first game of the tournament tonight against Spain. The game kicks off at 7:30pm and you can watch it on either BBC3 (UK viewers) or Eurosport. If you are unable to follow the game on TV for any reason, twitter should also be a good source. I'll be missing the second half so will also be relying on twitter for news!
A couple of England supporters are currently at/ heading out to Sweden, below are a couple of blogs that will be getting updated from the tournament. If anyone reading this also has a blog they will like me to link to send me a message via twitter!
FATV have uploaded a number of videos from the England camp this week, you can find an interview with Liverpool captain Gemma Bonner below as well as a training video from a camera strapped to Fara Williams chest!
There have been a number of fixture changes to the second half of the season, most notably the final game vs Bristol Academy has moved from 15th September to 29th September. Check out the official site for all remaining fixtures.
Ahead of the England game tonight Liverpool duo Natasha Dowie and Amanda DaCosta will be at Media City in Manchester. The FA are holding a 'Girls Football Festival' starting from 12pm and ending on the final whistle. For more information follow this link.
Natasha also took part in BBC Five Live's Euro Preview last night, answering questions on current support for Women's Football in the UK, the impact of foreign players on the league and why she was left out of the England squad! You have 7 days to listen to the show from this link here. It is well worth a listen.
"Maybe the other strikers fit into the England team better, when I get my chance hopefully I'll take it"
Whitney Engen's USA have announced a new friendly vs Mexico on 3rd September. The game will be played at RFK Stadium, Washington DC and is once again in the middle of our domestic dates - we have Birmingham on the 1st and Doncaster on the 4th.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.