Team GB players, right back

Alex Scott  A world class player, the typical modern full back who has all the skills needed for the job.

Dunia Susi Scott’s usual deputy, very versatile can also play on right wing and left wing.

Lucy Bronze coming back from many injuries a great prospect

Chelsea Weston a solid defender excellent crosses and powerful defender

Loren Dykes still learning the job with Wales

Kerry Manley well she has been selected in the pre-list,I don’t think she is at the same level as the others by far.

The top 2 right-backs make my shortlist.

 

FA WSL transfers December 11

Those are the transfers officially announced as of today by the FA WSL clubs for December 2011 :

Arsenal

In : Alex Scott ( Boston Breakers) 3 games loan

Out : Rebecca Spencer (ASJ Soyaux )

Birmingham

In :

Out : Stephanie Curtis ( Bristol)

Everton

In :

Out :

Lincoln

In :

Out : Sue Smith, Leandra Little ( Doncaster )

Bristol

In : Stephanie Curtis ( Birmingham )

Out : Katie Sherwood ( Chelsea )

Chelsea

In : Katie Sherwood ( Bristol )

Out :

Doncaster

In : Sue Smith , Leandra Little ( Lincoln )

Out :

Liverpool

In :

Out :

Sue Smith seems to me a Beckham-like marketing signing for the Belles. As her performance level has not been very high recently. Katie Sherwood to Chelsea just surprising as well as there are many central midfielder that are better than her in E ngland ( 20 to 30) and Chelsea should be looking for top class player really if they want to fight for the title next season.

Team GB left backs

Claire Rafferty An obvious number 1 choice here.
She has no real competition and has everything you demand from a left back.

Kerys Harrop A great back-up choice for Rafferty has done very well there for Birmingham over the season, has a powerful left foot.

Sophie Perry a solid left back very strong technically and strikes the ball well and can integrate easily in an attacking system/team.

Those are the 3 main choices. I would have had Michelle Hickmott on the list as well but I haven’t seen her on teamsheet for a long time.

Rachel Unitt is not on my list simply because I would only consider her as a center back as she can’t cope with the pace of players like Rapinoe, Thomis or HAO. There are 2 superb prospect in the U19 side Meaghan Sargeant and Alex Greenwood but they are probably a year or two short of experience to compete with Rafferty and Harrop.

The top 2 left-backs make my shortlist.

My Team GB shortlist for the Olympics

GK: 4 Telford Chamberlain Bardsley Spencer
RB: 2 Scott Susi
LB: 2 Rafferty Harrop
CB: 6 Stoney Flaherty Davies Bassett Bradley Corsie
DM: 3 Chapman Asante Williams
CM: 3 Scott Nobbs Ludlow
AM: 4 Little Carney Smith Buet
RW: 2 Davison Fishlock
LW: 2 Yankey Clarke
CF: 4 White Dowie Williams Sanderson
Multi-task: 2 Beattie Houghton

The final 18 would be decided on form, fitness and overall squad shape with multi-tasking player given priority over position specialist.

 

Colchester United v West Ham Ladies

I went to that game yesterday mainly to watch 2 players that I like Kelley Blanchflower and Kate Longhurst.

The weather was freezing cold and it was the most unusual game as the home team scored all the girls and ended up loosing the game 2-1.  As I said to my friend during the game, typical English game with passion and commitment.  It took about 30 minutes to register a shoot on target actually. Col U fail to win that game in my opinion because they did not have luck with a few referee’s decision and also because they did not use enough the direct ball into the penalty area where West Ham struggle to clear crosses and set pieces fro the whole game.

That game was  decisive as it was Colchester United last game for the season and needed every point on board as West Ham Portsmouth have respectively 2 and 3 on hand with them  and trailing by 4  and 5 points behind them now.

The Southern division promotion race is  very open and we might not know for a long time who will win the League and therefore get promoted.

Full game report by Patrick Higgins can be found at http://www.womenssoccerscene.co.uk/

Star player : Jess Barling ( West-Ham) 2 assists from the left-back position.

League season finished by tomorrow ? Col U

After highlighting Cardiff City bizzare schedule with many games to play until May, let’s have a look at Colchester United League schedule. The U play in the WPL Southern Division and will complete their league season tomorrow against West Ham.

As incredible as it seems for a season that started at the end of August, their season is nearly finished. Therefore comes the question what will they do for the next 6 months ? Train for 6 months ?

The answer is cup games and we know a cup run can end very quickly. Col U will be away to Gillingham on the 8th of January and then the League Cup format with group stage will give them another 4 games to play minimum, so that the season will stretch until middle March which would make only a 3 months break before the 2012-13 season. Not too bad LOL.

The Cardiff City Ladies conumdrum

In the Women’s Premier League national division most teams have 4 to 6 games to finish their League season which is a bit of a joke with a Winter season starting in September. But Cardiff City have 10 more games and are sitting 3^rd from bottom in the table as of today but could finish champions actually, should they win all their remaining games.

 

Let’s have a look at Cardiff upcoming games :

11/12 H Reading

18/12 A Leeds

Christmas break and then 8 more League games to play.

08/01 open date 1

15/01 international friendlies

22/01 open date 2

29/01 open date 3

05/02 FA Cup

12/02 international friendlies

19/02 open date 4

26/02 FA Cup

04/03 Algrave Cup

11/03  FA Cup

18/03 open date 5

25/03 FA Cup

01/04 Euro qualifiers

08/04 open date 6

15/04 FA Cup

22/04 open date 7

29/04 open date 8

06/05 open date 9

13/05 open date 10

20/05 open date 11

27/05 open date 12

Cardiff City are not likely to go all the way in the FA Cup and we don’t know the format for the WPL League Cup yet but it could pile-up more games on Cardiff heavy’ schedule. Clearly a typical of badly managed schedule by the FA. I mean they plan the season to start in September and finish on the 18^th of December. Really? It also does raise a question on the fairness of the competition.

 

 

 

Euro 2013 qualifiers

The group winners and best runners-up (counting results against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their section) progress to the final tournament, and the other six runners-up go to the play-offs.

Play-offs rules : The six teams will be drawn into three pairs for the two-legged play-offs on 20/21 and 24/25 October 2012. The three nations with the highest coefficients are seeded and at home in the second leg. The three winners qualify for the finals.

So in group 1 Italy, Russia or Poland can win the group.

Group 2  Spain and Germany to battle for the win, Switzerland would need a monster effort to finish in the top 2.

Group 3  Iceland, Belgium, Northern and Norway all in it, a very open group which is unexpected really.

Group 4  France just need 3 home wins against Wales, Ireland and Scotland with those 3 teams fighting for the runner-up spot, except it Scotland takes 4 points of us and would finish top.

Group 5  All to play for for everyone except Estonia Slovakia and Belarus ahead of Finland and Ukraine.

Group 6 Netherlands and England will fight for the top spot.

Group 7 Denmark well ahead with Czech Republik and Austria for the runner-up place.

So far it is difficult to evaluate who will be the best runner-up, because in the 3 6 teams group, the bottom team is not clearly defined.

http://www.uefa.com/womenseuro/standings/index.html

England squad v Serbia

Interesting news from the FA : Danielle  Buet has been called up to the England Women’s squad that will face Serbia on Wednesday 23 November. She replaces Eniola Aluko from Sky Blue, who has withdrawn from the squad due to her legal studies

The firs thing that comes to mind is why replace a center forward by a central midfielder ? Then you look at the squad :

Goalkeepers – Karen Bardsley (Linköpings, on loan from Sky Blue), Rachel Brown (Everton), Siobhan Chamberlain (Bristol Academy)

Defenders – Sophie Bradley (Nottingham Forest, on loan from Lincoln), Alex Scott (Boston Breakers), Casey Stoney (Lincoln), Dunia Susi (Birmingham City), Rachel Unitt (Everton), Fern Whelan (Everton)

Midfielders – Laura Bassett (Birmingham City), Dani Buet* (Chelsea), Jess Clarke (Lincoln), Steph Houghton (Arsenal), Jade Moore (Birmingham City), Jill Scott (Everton), Fara Williams (Everton), Rachel Yankey (Arsenal)

Forwards – Karen Carney (Birmingham City), Natasha Dowie (Everton), Kelly Smith (Boston Breakers), Ellen White (Arsenal), Rachel Williams (Birmingham City)

Obviously with the 4-3-3 used by England there is still 4 center forwards available to Hope Powell for that 1 center forward position on the pitch ( White, Dowie, Williams and Smith ).  So it does make sense to call up another midfield especially as Houghton and Bassett are regulars in defense with Arsenal and Birmingham also with Clarke and Yankey being wingers, there were not many regular central midfield in the squad. It is also interesting to notice that Anita Asante has been overlooked

Coming back on the game against Netherlands, a question needs to be asked about the center-forward position.  Ellen White started up front and ran her socks off for 90 minutes to no avail and she was not given any proper service. Then the options on the bench were Houghton who came on for Clarke, Bassett, Whelan, Susi and Rachel Williams.  So why, when you main center forward is struggling to get involved, not replace her by someone who could help the team in a different way by holding the ball and bringing other people in ? Defense would be able to play higher on the pitch and soak less pressure from the opposition. It would also give the team more chances to win the game actually.

Instead of being conservative and try to save a point, why not try to win the game. At the end of the day, Netherlands will come in April and the possibiltiy of them grabbing another draw and send England to the play-offs is very real.  But no, the player with the right tactical profile was sitting in the stand. So can someone explain why England had 3 centre forwards with exactly the same profile on the teamsheet and the one that could have brought something different and useful in the game not in the 18 ? I don’t understand that logic at all.

Is the England women team going nowhere ?

Looking at the latest England squad for the game against Serbia, I find it extremely puzzling the over-reliance on certain players who are guaranteed to be in the squad regardless of their past performances and failure?

It is normal to have a backbone of players but if the backbone is weak and fragile and broken, it needs to be changed with new blood otherwise come 2013-15 a lot of girls will be thrown at the deep end without tournament/ big games experience. Regeneration is a natural process : older players get replaced by younger fitter and better ones.Well it does not seem to happen very often with England under Hope Powell.

I really don’t think it is rocket science to leave at home those who failed repeatedly. According to a players interviews there are team and individual debriefing after games and tournaments so you really if the lessons from the World Cup have been learnt or if it is the same old song.

England will at minimum reach the play-offs and there is no doubt about that. Simply because group 6 has only 2 big teams Holland and England, Serbia Croatia and Slovenia are minnows that should be brushed aside easily. I know it didn’t happen in Serbia which was a big shock and reflected badly on the FIFA with many points losts. So direct qualification or via play-off is more or less guaranteed because there is too much quality in the side to fail. The main problem now is getting the right players on the pitch because if you are a top class player sitting in the stand or on the bench won’t help the team.