IFFHS STATISTICS AND NEWS OF THE WEEK 23
Picture : Just one year ago, Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe, the stars of the World Cup 2019.
IFFHS STATISTICS AND NEWS OF THE WEEK 23
THE YOUNGEST GOALSCORER IN THE BUNDESLIGA !
Last week, Florian Wirtz, 17 years and 34 days old, scored one goal with Bayer Leverkusen against FC Bayern München and became the youngest Goal Scorer in the History of the Bundesliga in Germany !
Nuri Sahin (17 years and 82 days) in 2005 and Lars Ricken (17 years and 244 days) in 1994, all with Borussia Dortmund, were the last recordholders.
CAF TO AID ITS 54 MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS CRUMBLING UNDER COVID-19.
In a video conference Thursday, May 28th, the Confederation for African Football, CAF, Emergency Committee has approved the disbursement of financial grants to its 54 member associations “to support the management of football at domestic levels hugely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic,” in the words of the president, Ahmad Ahmad.
By the approval, the sum of US$10.8 millions will be part of a relief back-up package to all 54 member associations as they grapple with the unprecedented difficulties generated by the lockdown of their activities by the Covid-19 pandemic. The gesture would also suspend eligibility requirements for annual grants. Two weeks ago, CAF announced the disbursement of US$ 3.5 millions to participating teams of the inter-club competitions for the 2019/20 season.
Meanwhile, the hosts of the 2021 AFCON, Cameroon have been asked to update CAF on the level of preparations for the competition whose qualifiers were halted by Covid-19 with four playing days to the end. Predictions are beginning to concur that the January holding of the competition would certainly be disrupted by the highly unpredictable Covid-19 pandemic.
It would be recalled that CAF is monitoring the evolution of Covid-19 with WHO, FIFA, other Confederations, and Governments, and would be making decisions on the way forward for the African game at the appropriate time.
NIGERIA EXTEND CONTRACT OF SUPER EAGLES TRAINER GERNOT ROHR.
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF chieftain, Amaju Pinnick has tweeted the decision to extend the tenure of German trainer, Gernot Rohr at the helm of that country’s national football team, Super Eagles. The decision made public on May 27th, extends Rohr’s contract with the responsibility of winning the 2021 African Cup of Nations to be hosted by perennial rivals, Cameroon, and also to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2022 FIFA World Cup scheduled for Qatar.
67-year-old Gernot Rohr first became Super Eagles head coach in August 2016. His first game was a 1-0 home win of Tanzania in Uyo where he incidentally registered his first defeat to South Africa 2-0 ten months on. In October, 2017, he and the Super Eagles won the credit of becoming the first African team to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia following their 1-0 defeat of the Chipolopolo of Zambia. Gernot Rohr who had also coached Niger from September, 2012 before resigning in October, 2014, and then spending some months with Burkina Faso before being sacked in December, 2015, is clearly in the good books of the Nigeria football authorities. He took the Super Eagles to a bronze medal achievement during the 2019 African Cup of Nations hosted by Egypt.
Defender, in his playing days, Rohr played with Bayern Munich from 1972-1974 amongst other clubs, and made his Africa coaching debut with Etoile Sportive du Sahel.
JUST BEFORE ONE YEAR ON JUNE 7
Exactly before one year (June 7 2019), the Woman World Cup began in France, ending on July 7 with the crown of USA. What have the Football World seen in France ? Conclusions.
The best Women’s World Cup ever ? That’s what FIFA says about the 2019 competition, the conclusion of FIFA’s technical study group report about France 2019. The report, published Sept. 22, coinciding with the FIFA Football Conference in Milan, Italy. “France 2019 was the most electrifying Women’s World Cup of all time. I have been involved in the Women’s World Cup since its first edition in 1991, and 2019 was by far the best,” TSG head April Heinrichs, former U.S. women’s national coach who directed the team to the 2004 Olympic gold medal. “The most impressive aspect of this Women’s World Cup was the overall influence of attacking transitions. Teams showed the ability to penetrate quickly and effectively. Practically every team was dangerous while counterattacking. ” The TSG report revealed that only 9 percent of passes were played long in France, a decrease from the previous two editions of the tournament. That suggested that teams were progressively looking to play shorter balls and build patiently, as opposed to going direct. Another report highlight related to goalkeeping, particularly the game-impacting saves that were made, where the save rate of 70 percent was five percentage points up from Canada 2015. The 72 percent conversion rate from penalties in France was down 10 percentage points from 2015. “Besides the outstanding performances of all goalkeepers who made it to the quarter-finals like Chile’s Christiane Endler, who was simply fantastic,” Henrichs said. “In this edition of the Women’s World Cup, we were treated to fantastic goalkeepers who made huge contributions to their team’s success, not just in terms of shot-stopping but also in build-up play with their feet.” The TSG report also contained performance insights, including the ranking of total distance covered, which was led by Germany with 114.7 kilometers per match, substantially above the tournament average of 109.3km.
We know Megan Rapinoe
She may have been a star in women's football before France 2019, but now Megan Rapinoe has name recognition across the world. Rapinoe took home the Golden Boot, the Golden Ball, and won Fifa player of the match during the final, but she also made headlines for criticising President Donald Trump and championing LGBT rights and women's equality in football. On social media, she became the most mentioned player of the tournament. Fans praised the 34-year-old co-captain for standing up for her beliefs as well as her prowess on the field - with some joking that she would technically be eligible to run for president against Mr Trump in 2020.
Thirteen goals in a World Cup game is possible
The USWNT achieved the biggest ever win margin in World Cup history when they soundly defeated Thailand 13-0. Germany held the previous record, defeating Argentina 11-0 in 2007. Star player Alex Morgan scored five goals, with six others, including Rose Lavelle and Megan Rapinoe, also finding the back of the net.
In light of the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic is having around the world and the postponement of the FIFA Council meeting that was foreseen to take place in early June 2020 in Addis Ababa, FIFA has today confirmed to the bidding member associations that the selection of the host(s) of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™ by the FIFA Council will be made at its meeting to be held online on 25 June 2020.
In the most competitive bidding process in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, four bids are in the race to host this showpiece competition:
- Joint submission by Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football
- Submission by the Brazilian Football Association
- Submission by the Colombian Football Association
- Submission by the Japan Football Association
CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE ON PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR THE 2020 SEASON
On Friday, June 5 the Canadian Premier League together with its owners, clubs and player leadership unanimously agreed on the structure and concept of a proposed strategy on the possibility of a 2020 CPL season.
Many details still need to be ironed out as the statement from the CPL did not provide any details on what the season would look like in terms of the number of games that will be played, when the campaign would kick off, where games would be played and whether or not fans will be allowed to attend matches. The 2020 season is the second year of the national soccer leagues existence, was postponed on March 13 due to the COVID 19 pandemic.The first year (2019 season) of the soccer league was won by FORGE FC . The CPL feels an obligation on behalf of our players, teams, supporters and partners, to get back on the pitch and that can’t happen without the players input and support. The health and safety of all is the single most important issue and it is vital that appropriate health and safety protocols mandated by the local and Provincial officials are in place and agreed to by all stakeholders – players, clubs, owners, league and Canada Soccer, the CPL’s governing body. “Our position since we began the journey of building the League from the ground up has been to work together,” said David Clanachan, Canadian Premier League Commissioner. “We started this process behind the scenes many weeks ago in consultation with our owners on the many details and protocols required to safely return to the field of play, and potential opportunities that may emerge. This led to the next step of a collaborative discussion with the players this week.”
NATIONAL WOMEN SOCCER LEAGUE CHALLENGE CUP 2020
The National Women’s Soccer League has announced the full schedule for the 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup presented by P&G and Secret, to find the successor of Champion NCC Courage (picture).Commissioner Lisa Baird made this announcement in the CBS Sports HQ studio on Monday, June 1 to reveal the full tournament draw. The 25-game tournament will kick off on June 27, 2020 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman, Utah. While spectators will not be in attendance, fans can catch all the action via CBS, CBS All Access, and Twitch for fans outside the U.S. and Canada. The format of the tournament will feature all the league’s nine clubs each playing four games in the preliminary rounds to determine seeding. Following the preliminary rounds, the top eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals set for Friday, July 17 and Saturday, July 18. The semifinals and Final presented by Budweiser will be played in Sandy, Utah at Rio Tinto Stadium on Wednesday, July 22 and Sunday, July 26, respectively.
This tournament marks the league’s first competition since the 2019 NWSL Championship which saw the North Carolina Courage defeat the Chicago Red Stars to become back-to-back NWSL Champions as the 2020 NWSL regular Season could not commence on April 18, 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic :
PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE:
June 27, 2020 | July 4, 2020 | July 9, 2020 |
Chicago Red Stars v. Orlando Pride | Chicago Red Stars v. Utah Royals FC | Orlando Pride v. Sky Blue FC |
NC Courage v. Portland Thorns FC | Washington Spirit v. OL Reign | Chicago Red Stars v. Houston Dash |
June 30, 2020 | July 5, 2020 | July 12, 2020 |
Washington Spirit v. Utah Royals FC | NC Courage v. Orlando Pride | Utah Royals FC v. NC Courage |
OL Reign v. Sky Blue FC | Houston Dash v. Sky Blue FC | Portland Thorns FC v. OL Reign |
July 1, 2020 | July 8, 2020 | July 13, 2020 |
Portland Thorns FC v. Orlando Pride | Washington Spirit v. Portland Thorns FC | Chicago Red Stars v. Sky Blue FC |
NC Courage v. Houston Dash | Utah Royals FC v. OL Reign | Washington Spirit v. Houston Dash |