Monthly Archives: June 2017

FA Women’s Premier League season 2017/18

 

 

The 2017/18 season will start on Sunday the 20th of August 2017 and supposed to finish with the play-off game on Sunday the 27th of May 2018. The play-off winner should be replaced the team finishing at the bottom of the FA WSL2.

The following 105 teams will compete in the six  FA Women’s Premier League Divisions

In the Southern Division, there will be  a question mark if Cardiff can get promoted as FA WSL teams but be registered with an English county, but rumors last season going round suggested they would be allowed to go up.

Charlton are favourite while, Cardiff and Coventry have always finished closed to the top in recent seasons. We also know that Crystal Palace and West Ham Utd are ambitious and are planning to try to get to the FA WSL in the future.

In the Northern Division, Blackburn Rovers will be the team to beat as they finished the League season unbeaten and won the League with 11 and 20 points ahead of second and third place.

The full fixtures list will be revealed in July. The FA WPL Cup draw has also been made as well as the Reserves Cup draw with ties to be played on the 3rd of September.

The reserves Leagues are as follows :

and the Reserves cup draw is as follows

I will try to get to FA WPL games when I am not at FA WSL or international games as it is a very entertaining and interesting Leagues and there are some diamonds in those teams that could play at a higher level if given a chance.

 

 

France players for the 2017 Euros and their previous tournament experience

Olivier Echouafni has named his 23+6 reserves squad for the UEFA 2017 Euros to be played next month in the Netherlands.  Here we will look at how much tournament experience the France squad has gathered through the years.

 

The full squad list :

GK (3) : Sarah Bouhaddi (OL), Méline Gérard (OL), Laëtitia Philippe (Montpellier),

DF (7) : Laura Georges (PSG), Jessica Houara d’Hommeaux (OL), Sakina Karchaoui (Montpellier), Griedge Mbock (OL), Ève Perisset (PSG), Wendie Renard (OL), Aissatou Tounkara (Juvisy)

MF (8) : Camille Abily (OL), Élise Bussaglia (Wolfsburg), Grace Geyoro (PSG), Amandine Henry (Portland), Claire Lavogez (OL), Amel Majri (OL), Gaëtane Thiney (Juvisy), Sandie Toletti (Montpellier)

FW (5) : Camille Catala (Juvisy), Marie-Laure Delie (PSG), Kadidiatou Diani (Juvisy), Eugénie Le Sommer (OL), Elodie Thomis (OL)

Reserves : Pauline Peyraud-Magnin (OM), Marion Torrent (MHSC), Aminata Diallo (PSG), Clarisse Le Bihan (MHSC), Valérie Gauvin (MHSC), Mylaine Tarrieu (OL)

 

Here are the players that played in the previous  international  competitions

World Cup 2003 (1): Laura Georges

Euro 2009 (7): Laura Georges, Camille Abily, Elise Bussaglia, Amandine Henry, Gaetane Thiney, Eugenie Le Sommer, Elodie Thomis

World Cup 2011(9) : Wendie Renard, Laura Georges, Eugenie Le Sommer, Camille Abily, Elodie Thomis, Elise Bussaglia, Gaetane Thiney, Marie-Laure Delie, Laetitia Phillipe

Olympic Games 2012 (10+1) : Sarah Bouhaddi, Laura Georges, Wendie Renard, Camille Abily, Elise Bussaglia, Camille Catala, Gaetane Thiney, Marie-Laure Delie, Eugenie Le Sommer, Elodie Thomis, Laetitia Phillipe*

Euro 2013 (12) : Sarah Bouhaddi, Wendie Renard, Laura Georges, Jessica Houara, Elise Bussaglia, Amandine Henry, Camille Catala, Camille Abily, Eugenie Le Sommer, Elodie Thomis, Gaetane Thiney, Marie-Laure Delie

World Cup 2015 (16): Sarah Bouhaddi, Meline Gerard, Laura Georges, Jessica Houara, Amel Majri, Griedge M’Bock Bathy, Wendie Renard, Camille Abily, Elise Bussaglia, Amandine Henry, Claire Lavogez, Elodie Thomis, Marie -Laure Delie,  Kadidiatou Diani, Gaetane Thiney, Eugenie Le Sommer

Olympic Games 2016 (15+1): Sarah Bouhaddi, Meline Gerard, Griedge M’Bock Bathy, Wendie Renard, Sakina Karchaoui, Amandine Henry, Amel Majri, Jessica Houara, Eugenie le Sommer, Camille Abily, Claire Lavogez, Elodie Thomis, Kadidiatou Diani, Elise Bussaglia, Marie-Laure Delie, Laetitia Phillipe*, Sandie Toletti **

*alternate at the London and Rio Olympics did not play

** alternate at the Rio Olympics did not play

 

The player with the most experience is Laura Georges with 7 tournaments played so far.

The we have a quartet of Camille Abily, Elise Bussaglia, Eugenie Le Sommer and Elodie Thomis with 6 tournaments played.

Gaetane Thiney , Wendie Renard, Marie-Laure Delie all come next with 5 tournaments

Amandine Henry and Sarah Bouhaddi have been selected in  4 tournaments

Jessica Houara has taken part in 3 tournaments

Camille Catala, Meline Gerard, Amel Majri, Griedge M’Bock-Bathy,  Claire Lavogez, Kadidiatout Diani have played in  2 tournaments

Sakina Karchaoui has played 1 tournament

Laetitia Phillipe has taken part in 1 tournament but was an alternate twice at the London and Rio Olympics.

Eve Perisset, Aissatou Tounkara, Grace Geyoro and Sandie Toletti who was an alternate at the Rio Olympics will take part in their first senior tournament.

 

If we compare the squad to the one from the  last tournament played, the Rio Olympics last year (with 18 players) Sabrina Delannoy and Louisa Cadamuro have retired from football, while Kheira Hamraoui lost her way by moving from PSG to Lyon and ended up with little to nearly no playing time and lost her place to Grace Geyoro.

If we compare the squad to the last tournament with 23 players ie the 2015 World Cup in Canada : Celine Deville, Laure Boulleau, Sabrina Delannoy, Kenza Dali, Louisa Cadamuro, Annaig Butel and Kheira Hamraoui are not there.

 

So the France WNT are clearly one the favourite to win the 2017 Euros, but we know that they need to solve their mental weakness problem and they also need to be able to finish their chances when it matters. And it shows in their final games in the last tournaments.

Euro 2009 :  lost on penalties to Netherland in QF 0-0 at full time

WC 2011 : lost to the USA 4-2 in the SF,  lost 2-1 to Sweden in 3rd place play-off

OG 2012 : lost to Japan 2-1 in SF, lost 1-0 to Canada in 3rd place play-off

Euro 2013 : lost to Denmark on penalties in QF 1-1 at full-time

World Cup 2015 : lost to Germany on penalties in QF 1-1 at full time

OG 2016 : lost to Canada 1-0 in QF