Teams already eliminated from the Continental Cup

Due to the bizzare qualification mode with 4 teams out of 18 qualifying for the competition’s semi-finals, here is a quick recap of all the teams already out of the competition.

Teams will probably need 10 points out of 15 minimum to qualify as best runner-up as seen in the WSL Development League Cup, so all teams that cannot reach that points total are likely to be out of the competition.

Group 1

Millwall Lionesses 2 pts max 8
Watford Ladies 3 pts max 9

Group 2

Durham Women 0 pt max 9

Group 3

Aston Villa Ladies 0 pt max 6
Oxford United 0 pt max 6

FA WSL Continental Cup Matchday 4 & 5 preview

In a bizzare twist, the League takes another break until the 16th of July and we are now looking at the final games for the Continental Cup group stage. Top team from each group qualifies and the best runner-up as well.

Group 1

Arsenal v Chelsea 06/07

London Bees v Reading 06/07

Watford v Millwall 06/07

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Arsenal v Bees 10/07

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Reading v Watford 12/07

Chelsea v Bees 13/07

Millwall v Arsenal 13/07

 

Group 2

Durham v Liverpool 06/07

Everton v Doncaster 06/07

City v Sunderland 06/07

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Liverpool v Doncaster 12/07

Durham v City 13/07

Sunderland v Everton 13/07

 

Group 3

Birmingham v Oxford 02/07

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Bristol v Villa 05/07

Birmingham v Notts 06/07

Oxford v Yeovil  06/07

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Yeovil v Notts 12/07

Villa v Oxford 13/07

Birmingham v Bristol 13/07

Watford Ladies, Millwall Lionesses, Durham Women, Oxford United  and Aston Villa are already eliminated from the competition.

Group tables are here : https://mywomensfootball.wordpress.com/2014/05/16/fa-wsl-conti-cup-group-stage-tables/

 

 

 

FA WSL 1 Maych Day 5 statistics and table

Liverpool – Arsenal 0-1

Goal : Stoney

Assist Carter

 

Birmingham – Man City 2-0

Goal : Linnett, Harrop

Assists : Potter, Weston

Yellow card Linnett

Red card

Everton – Chelsea 1-2

Goal : Parris, Aluko, Borges

Assists Blundell George

Yellow card Blundell, Spence

 

1 Birmingham 11 pts +5

2 Chelsea 8 pts +2

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3 Bristol (-1) 7 pts +2

4 Notts County (-1) 6 pts +2

5 Liverpool 6 pts 0

6 Man City 6 pts -2

7 Arsenal 4 pts -4

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8 Everton 2 pts -5

 

1st League win for Arsenal

1st League defeat for Liverpool

Arsenal out of the relegation zone

Chelsea in the champions league place

 

FA WSL 2 match day 6 stats and table

Sunderland – Yeovil 2-0

Goals : Holmes Ramshaw

Red card : Brazell

Reading – Villa 3-1

Goals : Bruton x 2, Cox, Robinson

Red card : Moran

Durham – Oxford 1-2

Goals : Scott , Hines, Connor- Iommi

Millwall – Doncaster 0-0

London Bees – Watford 4-5

Goals Mallett x2, Nuttall x2, Beckett, Hector, Natkiel X3

1 Sunderland 18 pts +11

2 Doncaster 16 pts + 11

3 Reading 10 pts +5

4 Millwall 9 pts +3

5 Watford  8 pts -2

6 Yeovil 7 pts -2

7 Villa 5 pts -5

8 Bees 4pts -3

9 Oxford 4 pts -8

10 Durham 3 pts – 10

Sunderland top of the table for the 1st time this season

1st win for Oxford no longer bottom of the table

1st points dropped by the Belles

Reading 3 Villa 1

It was a bizzare game yesterday evening. The pitch was not in good shape, not helping to play fluent attacking football. The teams were a bit rusty after the break, that was more or less expected to be fair. The match was full of fouling, kicking, probably with the highest number of fouls I have seen in a long time. The funniest thing is the referee did not whistle everything otherwise the count would have been even worse.

Both side tried really hard to create something but did not manage to in the 1st half, so the game was really flat. A couple of bookings due to the previously mentionned problems and a red card to entertain us. One Villa player was booked on an attacking free kick probably for hitting or pushing a Reading defender and 3 minutes, she just kicked a player running past her to stop her. Second booking early shower and Villa to play 50 minutes with 10 v 11.

Villa played very well with 10 girls and should probably have gone home with a point. They frustrated Reading for a long time but got let down by the lack of discipline by giving away silly free kicks and penalty. The game had 0-0 written all over it with Reading unable to get behind or around the Villa defense and also in danger with counter attacks. Then with around 10 minutes to go, Bruton was found unmarked on the left wing and managed to lob the goalkeeper 1-0.
Most of the spectators thought that would be it, but Villa did not agree and equalised very quickly with a screamer from 20 yards that went top corner. We then entered injury and 1-1 was a fair result.

Unfortunately for Villa they gave away a couple of free kicks on the edge of the penalty area. The first one of the left went nowhere, but the second one on the right near the edge penalty area was perflectly set -up for a let footed player and Shelley Cox duly delivered and placed it top corner at the far post. 2-1, this was wll into injury time and then the referee gave even more time and Reading got a penalty for a foul inside the penalty area. Lauren Bruton dispatched it for a double and it ended 3-1.

Reading definitely missed Fran Kirby and found it difficult to create chances without her. They had to win to keep chasing Sunderland who won earlier in the day and are therefore 7 points behind the leaders.

FA WSL 2 Matchday 6 preview

FA WSL 2 restart with a full program unlike in FA WSL  1

2 games played on Saturday:  Sunderland v Yeovil and Reading v Aston Villa and 3 games played on Sunday :  Durham v Oxford, London Bees v Watford, Millwall v Doncaster.

At the top of the table. Sunderland and Doncaster will try to keep their 100% record intact and their promotion hope on the right track. The chasing pack of Millwall, Yeovil and Reading will certainly hope for one or both leaders to slip up this week-end and the gap is currently 7 and 8 points already.

At the bottom of the table, Oxford are the only winless team so far and it will be an intrigguing contest for them against 2nd from bottom Durham who registeed their first win away at London Bees just before the break.

FA WSL 1 matchday 5 preview

The FA WSL is back and with the table being tight at the top and at the bottom of the League, all 6 teams will be looking to gain 3 valuable points.

Bottom of the table Arsenal under temporary manager John Bayer will be searching for their 1st win to kickstart their League season. Liverpool could be top of the table with a win as they are trailing Birmingham by 2 poimts and are kicking off first at 1215 live on BT Sport.

Then at 2pm Birmingham will host Manchester City and the unbeaten leaders will surely try to extend their lead and increase the gap against a side that showed a lot of improvement towards the end of the 1st half of the season.

At 3.15pm 2nd from bottom and FA Cup runner-up Everton will try to get their first win against a Chelsea side that need to close the current 3 points gap on League Leaders Birmingham. This game is also shown live on BT Sport

With Notts County v Bristol postponed, we won’t have a clear picture on the title race as usual I should say. It seems that having all 8 teams having played the same number of games is an impossible feat to achieve in the FA WSL.

This week-end will give us a small indication on who will fight for the champions league places and who will try to avoid relegation but the road is long. What we know for sure is the League is very different from the 3 previous seasons where 1 or 2 teams got away early from the main pack and never got caught up. There are many draws this season and wins are even more valuables and decisive between big teams.

FA Women’s Premier League clubs are to be considered for entry into FA WSL from 2016

There has been an update on the changes in the women’s football pyramid below the FA WSL 1&2. The FA WPL brand will not disappear following a well documented fight from clubs against changes implemented by the FA. The article on the FA WSL website is here  : http://www.fawsl.com/news/fa_wpl_to_get_entry_into_fa_wsl.html

Let’s have a quick look at the main points :

For the start of the 2016 season, one FA WPL club will join FA WSL 2, providing they meet licencing requirements, with an additional club entering in 2017. No FA WSL 2 club will be relegated from The FA WPL, as their licences protect them from relegation until 2017.

FA WPL clubs will compete for entry, based on league position and meeting off-field licencing criteria, in the forthcoming season. The new 72-club strong WPL will include six regional divisions – Premier League Northern and Southern divisions, Division One South West, Division One South East, Division One Midlands and Division One Northern.

So the winner of the play-offs between the play-offs between the Northern and Southern divisions winners will be allowed to apply for WSL 2 at the end of the  2014-15 season ? The FA WSL 2 would therefore have 11 teams in 2016 and 12 in 2017. Again, teams have to meet minimum requirements for WSL 2, the current one according to the FA documents is to match the £30,000 given by the FA.

Licensing for WSL 1 & 2 will reopen for the season 2018. Anyone coming with enough money and marketing could access directly to WSL 1  as seen this season. The mega rich men’s Premier League teams could spare 1%of their revenue stream and give a £500,000 budget to their Ladies team without any problem, especially with the recent new tv deal.

Just to recap :

Step 1 in women’s football FA WSL 1 summer league open to franchises

Step 2 FA WSL 2 summer league

Step 3 FA WPL Northern and Southern winter leagues

Step 4  FA WPL Division One South West, Division One South East, Division One Midlands and Division One Northern. winter leagues

Step 1 & 2 are only open to franchises ( clubs)  that comply with minimum money and marketing requirements from the FA. The access to the highest level of women’s football pyramid on sporting merit  ended in 2009/10.

 

FA WSL schedule and postponements

So we are a few days away from the competition restart and there are question marks about potential game postponements. We all know there is a problem with the FA WSL 1&2 calendars, after all having the mid-season break when 4/5 League games out of 14/18 played have been played makes absolutely no sense.

We all know what it means. As usual, the FA WSL 1 will be a fitness competition and not a football one. I am just amazed that year after year after year, the FA WSL schedule is just a mess. This is the 4th year in a row when things are going wrong from the start. You’d think having 14 week-end set around the international calendar avoiding clashes would be easy to do. It does not seem so.

Remember last season when Bristol and Everton did not have a game for a full month in the middle of the 2 nd half of the competition. Then having to play all the backlog of games in September ?

So far only Notts County v Bristol has been postponed due to venue availability ??
You can bet many games will be called off in the near future as there are 2 international competitions in the Summer 2014. The UEFA U19 euros in 15th to 27th of July with England and Scotland involved. FIFA U20 WC in 5th to 24th of August with England involved. The FA WSL rules say that a team can request to postpone a game when 3 players are selected for those tournaments or if they have a goalkeeper selected.

18 players must be selected in the U19 squad and 21 for the U20, so the chances of having 1 team or 2 postponing games in July is real and it could be 2 or 3 in August.

Who is looking forward to another end of season with teams weakened as players are exhausted or unavailable due to injury? The FA WSL 1 should be a fair competition, a football competition first and foremost, not a fitness competition. I think it is sad that in year 4 and in a League with 14 games only, that kind of mess is still happening.

UK & Ireland teams in the UEFA WCL 2014/15

The 2014/15 edition has seen 54 teams enter the competition. 22 teams go through to the round of 32 directly and 32 go through the qualifying round with 8 pools of 4 teams.  The eight qualifying group winners, plus the two runners-up with the best record against the teams first and third in their section, proceed to the  round of 32. So it is 22 teams going direct + 10 teams via the qualifying round.

Here is the tournament calendar :

Qualifying round draw: 14.00CET, 26 June
Qualifying round: 9–14 August
Round of 32 & 16 draw: 22 August
Round of 32: 8/19 & 15/16 October
Round of 16: 8/9 November & 12/13 November
Quarter-final & Semi-final draw: 19 November
Quarter-finals: 21/22 & 28/29 March
Semi-finals: 18/19 & 25/26 April
Final (Olympiastadon, Berlin): 14 May

Here are the UK&I  teams and their club coefficients

Qualifying Round

Glentoran WFC NIR 2.660

Raheny United  IRL 3.640

Glasgow City SCO 29.260

Round of 32

Liverpool  Ladies ENG 19.305

Bristol Academy ENG 23.305

Holders Wolfsburg have a 78.249 coefficient and top coefficient team are Olympique Lyonnais 127.905

Seeding for the Round of 32 draw

Should Glasgow City qualify for the Round of 32, they will be seeded as they would be the 13th ranked team.

Bristol Academy are currently 14th in the coefficient list and Liverpool are 16th. The top 16 teams are seeded for the round of 32 draw and therefore guaranteed to avoid : Lyon, Wolfsburg, PSG, Rosengard, Frankfurt etc… Glasgow City with 29.260 and FC Zurich with  23.600 are in the qualifying round and have a coefficient that is bigger than Bristol. Should both teams qualify, Bristol would end up in 16th position and would still be seeded.

Standard de Liege with 22.270 and Apollon Ladies with 21.280 are also in the qualifying round and have a coefficient that is superior to Liverpool Ladies‘s one. Should any of the 4 teams previously named qualify to the round of 32, Liverpool would end up at least in 17th position and therefore not seeded.

Liverpool could end up drawing a big team in the 1st round of the competition. The same problem happened last season when Tyreso was unseeded and drew PSG and ended up runner-up in the competition. So not being seeded is not such a bad omen when you have world class players in your team.

For those who wonder why Bristol who finished 2nd in the League last year have more points than Liverpool who won the League, the explanation is simple. The coefficient is calculated on the last 5 seasons points gathered by the teams + 33% of the country coefficient. Liverpool have 19.305 points ie 33% of the England coefficient while Bristol have 23.305 has they played in the 2011/12 competition and scored 4 points that season ( 3 points for reaching the Round of 32 plus a point for the draw against the Russian team )