Month Review Part 2: The World of Women's Football-Soccer- in May.

Champions of Europe: VFL Wolfsburg with the Grandest Prize of them all!

...continued from previous article.

Coach Departures

In addition to April’s two infamous departures of head coaches in the women’s game, Tom Sermani and Hesterine de Reus, May also saw the exit of Patrick Lair, Tony Gustavsson and Shelley Kerr. Kerr announced she would leave Arsenal after the FA Cup final against Everton, probably due to their disappointing seasons campaign, Gustavsson left his position at Tyresö after failing to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League with the club, in addition to the club’s recent financial misfortunes however he was soon employed by Jill Ellis, current coach of the USA women’s national guiding them to their 8th consecutive triumph in the French Division 1 Feminine. The D1 Feminine trophy was Lair’s 8^th silverware for Lyon during his tenure.

Pioneer Costa

Precisely on May 7^th, history was made as Helena Costa became the first ever female coach of a French professional football club, taking charge of Ligue 2 side, Clermont Foot. The 36 year old who was in charge of Qatar and Iran women from 2010 to 2014 respectively was given the job at the end of the season. Costa had spells in the men's game at Benfica youth and did scouting jobs for Scottish champions, Celtic. It proved to be a landmark and one of the biggest news in the universal game.

Champions

May is definitely the month where champions are crowned around the world in various sports and it was no different in Women’s football.

On the international stage in Asia, Japan emerged as the Asian Champions for the first time having triumphed over Australia, 1-0, in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup.

In France, there was nothing PSG or Juvisy could to but watch Lyon féminine lift their 12^th Division 1 Féminine title, PSG could prevent Lyon from doing the double if they defeat them in Coupe de France final in June.

In Spain, Barcelona women also lifted the Women’s Primera Division trophy after leading the table by 10 points. Italy saw Brescia lift their Serie A trophy finishing with 5 points over Torres Calcio, losing only 1 game and winning the rest all season long. Also in Scotland, Glasgow City FC won the Scottish Women’s Premier league Cup after a 3-0 victory over Hibernian.

In Germany, FFC Frankfurt won the DFB Pokal against SGS Essen, however the league proves to be far from over FFC Frankfurt are just a point over VFL Wolfsburg while Turbine Potsdam are at risk of not qualifying for the next UEFA Champions League after sharing the points in their last game of the month which sunk them to a point under defending champions, Wolfsburg. The German Frauen Bundesliga is heading towards a pretty tense climax as Frankfurt play Potsdam next and the fixture could decide who would be the eventual champions.

 Finally, Europe’s most elite competition the UEFA Women’s Champions League came to an end between Tyresö and Wolfsburg, and the Germany champions proved victorious in a seven goal thriller, defeating Sweden’s Tyresö, 4-3. The game was a tale of two halves, Tyresö seemed to be in control in the first 45 minutes, leading the Germans 2-0, but Wolfsburg woke from their slumber in the second half and proved resilient, scoring 2 goals at first to level the game before Tyresö scored again to take the lead, then added another 2 to turn the game on its head. Veronica Boquete scored once and Marta scored twice for Tyresö while Alexandra Popp, Verena Faist had a goal each and Martina Muller scored twice for Wolfsburg, to continue her record of scoring in every single round of the competition and more importantly, claim German dominance in Europe.

World Cup Qualification

Having won the AFC Asian Women’s Championship, Japan have now qualified for next year’s World Cup in Canada, however they aren’t the only ones. Australia, China PR and South Korea will all be joining Japan and Canada next year after qualifying from their various groups in the AFC Championships while Thailand had to defeat Vietnam as the continents fifth best team to fill the remaining Asian qualification spot.

Point is, May has been such a wonderful month, so here’s to June and all the excitement that it would bring us in the world of our precious sport.

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