Women's round-up: November 2013

Our review of all aspects of women’s football this month visits four continents, with club action highlighted by new continental champs in South America and a shock for perennial French powerhouse Lyon. On the international stage the push for FIFA Women’s World Cup™ qualification continues unabated, while world No1 USA continue to fly above the pack.

National teams
Goals galore en-route to Canada 2015
There were a plethora of goals as European qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 continued over the past week. Most notably, France struck 24 unanswered goals past a hapless Bulgaria over two matches capped by 14-goal win in front of a healthy crowd in Le Mans. Germanywon 6-0 and 8-0 in Slovakia and Croatia respectively to maintain their perfect start. So too did Spain, although they were made to work overtime with 1-0 win over Romania followed by a 3-2 victory over Czech Republic.

Path to Asian glory laid out
Asia’s top nations now know what lies between them and qualification to Canada 2015 after Friday’s draw for next May’s AFC Women’s Asian Cup. Group A features hosts Vietnam, holders Australia, world champions Japan and debutants Jordan. The other group contains China PR, Korea Republic, Thailandand Myanmar. The top five nations will qualify for Canada 2015 with Korea DPR ineligible.

Stars and Stripes fly high
USA defeated Brazil 4-1 in Orlando to complete their first calendar year under new coach Tom Sermanni unbeaten. Forward Sydney Leroux hit two first-half goals, and Abby Wambach added to her international goalscoring record with her 163rd strike, but the story of the day was midfielder Erika Tymrak who scored her first goal in only her second appearance just one minute after entering the fray. Just over 20,000 were in attendance in the largest crowd to see the Stars and Stripes play in a stand-alone friendly in the south-eastern part of the country.

Matildas bound past Chinese
Australia kick-started preparations for their AFC Women’s Asian Cup title-defence, with successive victories over China PR. The Matildas collected 2-0 and 2-1 wins in Wollongong and Sydney. Among the goalscorers for Australia in the second match was Lisa De Vanna, who was recently short-listed for the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award.

Great Dane retires
Long-serving Denmark captain Katrine Pedersen has announced her retirement at the age of 36, having accrued a national record 210 caps in 20 years of international football. Now pregnant, Pederson, whose final major international tournament was this year’s UEFA Women’s EURO, signed off in style by collecting the Danish women’s player of the year award. “The older I get the more privileged I feel about the football life I have been allowed to live," said a visibly moved Pedersen on accepting her award.

Club football
Stunning run ends
There was one talking point which stood out above all others in women’s club football during the month. All conquering French champions Lyon, finalists for the past four seasons and unbeaten at home in more than seven years, were eliminated at the Round of 16 stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. German side Turbine Potsdam were the giant-slayers winning in Lyon for an away-goals victory, with Maren Mjelde scoring from the penalty spot midway through the second half in the decisive moment of the tie. The other teams that will line-up in the quarter-finals next year are holders Wolfsburg, former winners Arsenal, Barcelona, Birmingham City, SV Neulengbach, Italian champs Torres and Sweden’s ambitious Tyreso.

Continental crown returns to Brazil 
Sao Jose are South American queens once more after reclaiming the crown they lost last year to Chileans Colo Colo. The Brazilians seemed set to exit at the semi-final stage only to find an eleventh hour equaliser against Colo Colo leading to a penalty shoot-out victory, and then saw off Colombia’s Deportivo Formas Intimas in the final.

The stat
16 – Thirteen wins and three draws saw USA undefeated throughout 2013 for just the second time during a year that featured double-digit fixtures. The only previous occurrence was in 2006 when USAwon 18 and drew four of their 22 matches.

The quote
“The extraordinary growth of female participation in the modern era has changed the face of football in Australia,” said David Gallop, Football Federation Australia Chief Executive upon release of the national governing bodies’ strategic plan for women’s football.

World Cup Ticket Open For Booking Now/ Iran World Cup Team

                                         

                         

FIFA ranking of Iranian national football team has risen 15 places in the FIFA’s newest ranking of the world’s national football squads, placing it 52nd in the standing.

The new FIFA report, released on Thursday, further reflects that the Iranian team had the biggest jump in ranking among all other Asian football teams. 

The development comes after the Iranian national team walked away with three consecutive victories in FIFA competitions to win a spot at the 2014 World Cup matches due to been held in Brazil. 

Iran beat Qatar and South Korea 1-0 in their home turf and defeated Lebanon 4-0 at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium in June to take the lead in its group and secure its place in the World Cup competitions in Brazil. 

According to the new FIFA ranking chart, Japan and South Korea, the first- and third-ranking teams in Asia were moved down the chart by five and three places, respectively. 

Iran now stands as Asia’s fourth best football team, regaining the spot from Uzbekistan. 

Meanwhile, the new FIFA ranking also reflects the return of Brazil, the host of the next World Cup event, to the top ten football teams list, placing 9th after Spain, Germany, Columbia, Argentina, the Netherland, Italy, Portugal and Croatia. 

Japanese Team 2014 FiFa World Cup

How they qualified
The mammoth, two-year qualifying campaign saw Japan progress game-by-game under Alberto Zaccheroni, who took over in the wake of the team’s impressive run at the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. The new-look Japan were struggling to fit into the Italian’s strategy as they began their qualifying bid in lacklustre style, losing to Uzbekistan and Korea DPR before seeing their progression into the fourth round secured.

Their transition proved successful, inspired by talisman Keisuke Honda and spearheaded by the likes of Shinji Kagawa and Shinji Okazaki, the Japanese began to gel in the fourth round. Two emphatic opening victories over Oman (3-0) and Jordan (6-0) saw the Samurai Blue as the group’s runaway leaders and although they were held by Australia to a 1-1 draw, Oman and Iraq’s losses put Zaccheroni’s side on the cusp of qualification.

An unexpected 2-1 loss in Jordan may have briefly delayed their celebration party, but they battled back to draw Australia 1-1, providing Japan with the requisite point to seal their fifth successive FIFA World Cup appearance.

FIFA World Cup finals history 
They failed to live up to the expectations in their debut FIFA World Cup, losing three straight games to bow out. However, 2002 Korea/Japan saw them make history on home soil in Asia's first FIFA World Cup, winning a group that also featured Russia, Belgium and Tunisia to storm into the second round, only to lose out to eventual third-place finishers Turkey by a solitary goal. They were brought back down to earth at Germany 2006, salvaging merely a point from three group games to dump out.

They more than redeemed themselves at South Africa 2010 though, progressing to the second stage at the expense of the likes of Denmark and Cameroon. They came close to stunning Paraguay in the consequent round-of-16 clash, with the South Americans only advancing through a penalty shootout victory after regular and extra time finished goalless. 

The key players
Having excelled during the last FIFA World Cup and the recent AFC Asian Cup, CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda has quickly established his place as the team's new leader, filling the void left byHidetoshi Nakata and Shunsuke Nakamura.

Spearheading the attacking-line are Shinji Kagawa and Shinji Okazaki, who finished the continental finals as the team's top-scorer with three goals. Driving the central field alongside Honda is set-piece specialist Yasuhito Endo while Schalke 04 defender Atsuto Uchida is the key man at the rearguard.

Coach: Alberto Zaccheroni
Best performances in a FIFA competition: Men’s Olympic Football Tournament Mexico City 1968 (Third place), FIFA U-20 World Cup Nigeria 1999 (Runners-up), FIFA U-17 World Cup Mexico 2011 (Quarter-finals)
Former stars: Kazuyoshi Miura, Shunsuke Nakamura, Hidetoshi Nakata

Exclusive - Damaged Brazil stadium may be delayed till February: source

Workers stand near a crane that collapsed on the site of the Arena Sao Paulo stadium, known as "Itaquerao", which will host the opening soccer match of the 2014 World Cup, in Sao Paulo November 27, 2013. REUTERS/Nacho Doce

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A fatal construction accident at Sao Paulo's World Cup stadium may delay its opening until February, but FIFA is not worried about it being ready on time to host the tournament's opening game in June, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters on Thursday.

A preliminary investigation into Wednesday's accident, in which a crane collapsed and killed two workers, indicated that damage was confined to the concourse area and did not affect the stands - which could have taken longer to fix.

The damaged concourse area took about 35 days to build, and previous experience suggests it will take about twice that time to clear the wreckage and rebuild, the source said. If work resumes on Monday, as the builders believe it will, that puts the completion date in early February.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe into the accident is sensitive and ongoing, expressed "high confidence" in the timeline but said it is subject to change pending further investigation by local authorities.

"The reconstruction is not a difficult thing to do," the source said. "Everyone is mourning the workers, but calm about the construction itself."

If proven true, the news would be a relief for Brazil's troubled efforts to get stadiums and other key infrastructure ready on time before the global football tournament opens in Sao Paulo on June 12.

World football body FIFA has said that all of the stadiums to be used for the event must be finished by the end of December.

The source said, however, that FIFA has always been quietly willing to extend the deadline for the Sao Paulo facility - called Arena Corinthians - by a few months if necessary because construction there started a year later than at other stadiums.

"The timeline needed to open the stadium is guaranteed," the source said.

A spokesman for Odebrecht SA, the conglomerate building the stadium, declined comment. Andres Sanchez, a former president of the Corinthians football club who is overseeing construction, did not answer phone calls or text messages.

A FIFA spokeswoman told Reuters by email earlier on Thursday that it was "premature" to gauge how long the accident could delay the stadium's opening until next week at the earliest.

PUBLIC OUTRAGE

The crane collapse was the latest incident to cast a shadow over preparations for the Cup, which have been plagued by cost overruns, delays, and a dramatic downsizing of the public transportation projects that were supposed to be the event's main lasting legacy for Brazil's 200 million people.

Public anger over the billions of dollars being spent on the stadiums boiled over in June, when massive anti-government street protests erupted during a football tournament that is a warm-up for next year's event.

Brazilian newspapers said that one of victims of Wednesday's accident, Fabio Luiz Pereira, had dreamed of attending the Cup's opening match at the stadium he was helping build.

The accident occurred as the crane was lifting a large, 420-tonne piece of the stadium's roof into place. It was to be the last of 39 pieces of roof, which is why senior engineers and representatives of the Corinthians team including Sanchez were present when the tragedy took place, the source said.

Photos from the scene show the white, grid-like piece of roof crushed a sizeable section of the facility's exterior.

The initial investigation has identified four possible causes of the accident, the source said. They include the crane breaking due to the roof's weight; crane operator error; a procedural mistake in attaching the roof to the crane; and the crane losing its footing in the ground because of recent heavy rains, which the source said was "very feasible."

One risk to the stadium's revised timeline would be a lengthy legal investigation that freezes construction. However, the Sao Paulo state prosecutor's office said on Wednesday that it would only halt construction if "technical elements warrant."

Odebrecht said on Wednesday it expects to resume building on Monday.

Builders earlier on Thursday ordered a replacement for the fallen piece of roof, a component that is made in Brazil, the source said.

A police inspector also declared on Thursday that he would authorize workers to remove the fallen piece from the scene as soon as possible, the source said.

That development would also suggest a less intrusive approach by authorities to the accident. Sao Paulo's civil police force did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

(Additional reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Todd Benson and Sandra Maler)